David was born in Germany in 1956 of British military parents, and lived in various European locations, including Gibraltar, before high school and then graduating from Oxford University (English Literature, 1977). Qualifying as a language teacher he had a career teaching English as a Foreign Language, linguistics, Spanish and teacher-training, working at Goldsmiths University, the University of the Arts and the Instituto Cervantes, all in London. He also graduated in Fine Art from Central St Martin’s School, London in 1996 and has since followed a double career as a fine artist (www.davidhopkinspaintings.co.uk). With a strong interest in history and language, it was his pleasure and family duty to help prepare his sister Dr Valerie Smith’s ‘Rational Dissenters’ (Boydell Press, 2021) for publication.