His publications include a critical edition of the Dionysiaca of Nonnus (1994) and commentaries on Ovid's Metamorphoses (2000) and on selected works of Lucian (2008).
[1] He was educated at Hipperholme Grammar School[1] and in 1976 began studying Classics at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he was both an undergraduate and a postgraduate student.
His first major publication was an edition of the Hymn to Demeter by the Alexandrian poet Callimachus (1984),[3] which was still considered the standard work on this text at the time of his death.
[1] His publications also included a critical edition of the Dionysiaca of Nonnus (1994),[1] commentaries on Book 13 of Ovid's Metamorphoses (2000),[4] and on selected works of Lucian (2008).
The classicist Richard L. Hunter said that Hopkinson's knowledge of the classical languages was "unsurpassed";[6] by contrast, the Latinist Philip Hardie termed his commentary on the Hymn to Demeter as "a masterpiece of deep and judicious scholarship".