| Ian Donald Cochrane Hopkins | |
| Birth Date: | 16 July 1943 |
| Birth Place: | Darvel, Scotland |
| Occupation: | comedy writer and management consultant |
| Language: | English |
| Nationality: | Scottish |
| Citizenship: | United Kingdom |
| Alma Mater: | London University |
| Subject: | Economics |
Ian Donald Cochrane Hopkins (also known as IDC Hopkins or Ian D. C. Hopkins or Ian Hopkins) is a Scottish comedy writer[1] [2] and management consultant.
Born in Darvel, Ayrshire on 16 July 1943, Hopkins attended Kilmarnock Academy before pursuing a career in Industrial Engineering.[2]
Hopkins undertook a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics at London University, following which he became a lecturer in Management at the University of the West of Scotland.[2]
Hopkins comedy writing career began as a contracted writer for Naked Radio, Six of the Best, Not the Nine O'Clock News,[3] [4] Three of a Kind,[5] Naked Video[6] and Spitting Image.[7] [8]
Hopkins has had three stage plays performed. Albatross Soup (co-authored with John Duignan),[9] Citizen Singh (co-authored withGurmeet Mattu) and Every Bloody Sunday (co-authored with Gurmeet Mattu).
Hopkins has also had three satirical novels published, each co-authored with John Duignan: Skelp the Aged[10] [11] [12] in 2016; The Buick Stops Here[13] [14] in 2017; and The Lambshank Redemption[15] [16] in 2019.
Hopkins and Duignan began writing Skelp the Aged as a play, before deciding to make it a novel.[10] The three novels in the trilogy by Hopkins and Duignan follow hapless anti-heroes Mungo and Ethel Laird, in and out of trouble - and jail - as they struggle to maintain a living as bookies.[17] [2]
Hopkins also co-authored Shit Yourself Laughing[18] with Frank Muir.
In 2020, Hopkins' satirical novella, A Glutton-Free Diet, was published by Pegasus Publishers.[19] [20] The story takes place on the Isle of Arran and is set against the background of the New Labour government unveiling its proposals for a Scottish Parliament. The protagonists, in their own ways, represent the major contemporary influences in the 1997 Scottish devolution debate.
In July 2024 Hopkins latest novella, The Granny State of Drumhumble,[21] was published.
Set in the Scottish Highlands the novella is a "Satirical meta-fiction where Brigadoon meets Brave New World".