Willie Hopkin (1862-1951) was a poet, philosopher, social reformer, local historian and humorist. He was a life-long friend and mentor of D.H. Lawrence and one of the few people in Eastwood, Lawrence’s home town in Nottinghamshire, with whom Lawrence retained any continuous contact. Hopkin helped foster Lawrence’s belief that he could become a writer at a time when it was rare for someone from a working class background.

Hopkin was a Marxist and Lawrence attended social gatherings at his home where he met a wide range of Labour movement leaders. Hopkin wrote a column for the local newspaper for over fifty years covering social and political aspects of life in Eastwood, where he was active on the local council and appeared, thinly disguised, in several of Lawrence’s works.

The author, John Pateman, comes from a Romany Gypsy background. He was Head of Libraries in Hackney, Merton, Lincolnshire and Thunder Bay, Ontario. He founded Information for Social Change.He received the UK CILIP Libraries Change Lives Award for services to asylum seekers, refugees and migrant workers, the Canada 150 Award for services to Indigenous Peoples and the Cuban National Culture Award for his work in support of Cuban libraries. He is on the Council of the D.H. Lawrence Society.

His previous books include Developing Needs Based Library Services, Public Libraries and Social Justice, Developing Community-Led Public Libraries, Managing Cultural Change in Public Libraries, Public Libraries and Marxism, and Understanding Public Libraries.