R.J. Hopkins

I am British. I was born in 1940 in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, in the UK, and was educated at Bedford School. After showing early promise in the record industry, then in theatre management and subsequently at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), I worked in the not-for-profit sector, firstly as Executive Director of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) and then as National Director of CARE International (UK). I moved to New York in 1994, where I worked with ORBIS International and then as Executive Vice President with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). I was subsequently recruited by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) to head up their fundraising operations, based in Washington DC. After life-changing heart surgery, I moved back to the UK with my American wife Stella. We now live in Hythe, Kent. I combine writing with working part-time as Development Officer for St Albans Cathedral. I wrote Conducting Terror, my first novel, in the US while convalescing after my surgery.