One third of the world's coal was exported out of Barry before the war, requiring a massive and fascinating infrastructure of docks, cranes, coal staithes and railway yards, much of which was still in place - albeit derelict and overgrown with weeds - when I was growing up. After the war, Barry was also the place where lots of old steam engines were brought to be cut up for scrap. I remember seeing hundreds of them, waiting in long rusting lines. I like steam engines. A lot.

I spent my early years in Cornwall, then returned to Wales for my primary and secondary school education. I did a degree in astronomy at Newcastle, then a PhD in the same subject at St Andrews in Scotland. I left the UK in 1991 and spent the next sixteen years working in the Netherlands, mostly for the European Space Agency, although I also did a stint as a postdoctoral worker in Utrecht. I returned to Wales in 2008 and now live in Glamorgan, not too far from Cardiff.

I am married to a wonderful French lady. My wife and I like horse riding, birds, long walks in the woods, good curries and old films.

	Frankfurt, Germany