Ted Hopkins passed away on Monday 20 November 2023, after a long illness. He was 74 years old. He was a colleague and collaborator of mine in the 1980s and 90s. I haven’t seen him for years; however, the memories of him that came flooding in on hearing the news of his death were so vivid that I felt impelled to put pen to paper.
I write from a personal perspective because there were many sides to Ted with which I am not familiar. He was a champion footballer for the Carlton Football Club and there has been considerable coverage of his sporting prowess in the press, with many commentators reminiscing about his achievements. However, this is not the Ted I knew. I don’t know anything about football. The Ted I met was a writer and cultural commentator, who engaged in many arts events through his companies Backyard Press, Champion Books and Champion Productions.
