Robert S. Hopkins was the author of twelve books – three non-fiction works and nine novels – under his own name and the pen-name, Robert Rostand.

Of his novels, three became feature-length movies, two from screenplays by Hopkins, both international coproductions, and filmed respectively in France and Hungary. In addition he authored original screenplays for Universal Studios and Warner Brothers. Plus written multiple-episodes for two U.S. television series filmed in Canada, RoboCop and F/​X.

Hopkins was born and grew up in a small blue-collar town south of Los Angeles. He graduated from UCLA, not in English but Geography, and earned a Master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma.

Prior to full-time writing he taught in Hawaii at both the Kamehameha Schools and the University of Hawaii, later worked in sales management with the international division of the McGraw-Hill publishing company in New York and South America; had a tour under contract to the Peace Corps assessing staff in the Caribbean and Micronesia, and spent two years in London spinning words in one fashion or another for a design and marketing group.

Being an American living and working in foreign cultures had a profound influence on his fiction and non-fiction. The nine novels are all set in foreign locales known first-hand, most often with an American protagonist caught up in the "spirit of place" as British poet Lawrence Durrell called it.