Author Chris R. Pownall, who now resides in Nottinghamshire England, was born in 1943 in the rural Cheshire village of Bosley.
Chris failed his 11+ examination and received a secondary modern school education, leaving full time education at 15 years of age, with no academic qualifications to his name. He managed to secure an engineering apprenticeship at a nearby mill and attended Macclesfield College of further education, studying mechanical engineering until the age of 22 years.
Upon completion of his education and apprenticeship, Chris was promoted to the drawing office, but after 18 months in this responsible job, he decided it was time to move on.
In 1967, he joined the Merchant Navy, serving with the famous Blue Funnel Line, as an Assistant Engineering Officer, and whilst this was exciting and adventurous, Chris decided a life at sea was not for him, so following his initial training and one lengthy voyage to the Far East, he called it a day.
To further his engineering knowledge, he obtained employment as a design draughtsman, working for a UK engineering manufacturing company, and eighteen months later, he was employed by James Walker & Co Ltd, which marked the beginning of a forty year career in technical sales.
Chris progressed within the James Walker organisation, in a succession of sales management roles, finishing as an Industry Marketing Director, specialising in high performance sealing technology, within the global Metallurgical Industries. This role was to take him on many overseas travels, and in the last two years of his employment, he focused upon writing strategic market plans for some existing, plus new sales territories.
Although Chris has a loving wife Pat, retirement didn’t come easy, and after a few months, he was missing the demands of his occupation, with the days seeming endless.
He decided to take up writing and to date he has published nine books, with a possibility of more on the way. Writing has provided Chris with a retirement interest, as well as a major challenge, giving him great satisfaction, when a difficult project is finally completed.
Chris has a long standing reputation for being there when things go wrong and there are many examples of this in his three autobiographical books. He has encountered freak weather in faraway places and some of his working colleagues were reluctant to travel with him, knowing that something unpleasant was more likely to occur if he was around. Earthquakes and tornedoes in China to ice storms in the USA are among Chris’ encounters with Mother Nature.
Humour has always played an important part in Chris’ life, which manifests itself in his written work. He has witnessed many amusing situations throughout seven decades of life and he has appreciated the humorous side of everyday living.
As in most people’s lives, Chris and Pat have had their share of sadness, when at the age of eighteen, their son Robert, suffered a near fatal head injury. This was a life changing situation, which required great courage and determination on the part of their son Robert as well as unrelenting support from their Daughter Tracey, for Robert to regain his life after this tragic event.
Chris also writes newspaper features and magazine articles, and a recent publication was featured in the magazine 'Shipping Today & Yesterday’. It is entitled S.S. Talthybius 1944 to 1971, which was the Blue Funnel Ship on which he sailed to the Far East in 1967. The voyage included a visit to Shanghai in the People’s Republic of China at the height of the Proletarian Cultural Revolution, under the chairmanship of leader Moa Zedong. The story of what happened during this visit including an encounter with the military 'Red Guard', is detailed in Chris’ memoir entitled 'Funny How Things Work Out'.
Since Chris and his wife Pat retired, they are enjoying overseas travel, having taken holidays in Australia and China, plus numerous cruises with P&O cruise lines, and hopefully, there is much more travel to come. All this has provided Chris with additional material of life experiences, which he has included in some of his books.
Chris failed his 11+ examination and received a secondary modern school education, leaving full time education at 15 years of age, with no academic qualifications to his name. He managed to secure an engineering apprenticeship at a nearby mill and attended Macclesfield College of further education, studying mechanical engineering until the age of 22 years.
Upon completion of his education and apprenticeship, Chris was promoted to the drawing office, but after 18 months in this responsible job, he decided it was time to move on.
In 1967, he joined the Merchant Navy, serving with the famous Blue Funnel Line, as an Assistant Engineering Officer, and whilst this was exciting and adventurous, Chris decided a life at sea was not for him, so following his initial training and one lengthy voyage to the Far East, he called it a day.
To further his engineering knowledge, he obtained employment as a design draughtsman, working for a UK engineering manufacturing company, and eighteen months later, he was employed by James Walker & Co Ltd, which marked the beginning of a forty year career in technical sales.
Chris progressed within the James Walker organisation, in a succession of sales management roles, finishing as an Industry Marketing Director, specialising in high performance sealing technology, within the global Metallurgical Industries. This role was to take him on many overseas travels, and in the last two years of his employment, he focused upon writing strategic market plans for some existing, plus new sales territories.
Although Chris has a loving wife Pat, retirement didn’t come easy, and after a few months, he was missing the demands of his occupation, with the days seeming endless.
He decided to take up writing and to date he has published nine books, with a possibility of more on the way. Writing has provided Chris with a retirement interest, as well as a major challenge, giving him great satisfaction, when a difficult project is finally completed.
Chris has a long standing reputation for being there when things go wrong and there are many examples of this in his three autobiographical books. He has encountered freak weather in faraway places and some of his working colleagues were reluctant to travel with him, knowing that something unpleasant was more likely to occur if he was around. Earthquakes and tornedoes in China to ice storms in the USA are among Chris’ encounters with Mother Nature.
Humour has always played an important part in Chris’ life, which manifests itself in his written work. He has witnessed many amusing situations throughout seven decades of life and he has appreciated the humorous side of everyday living.
As in most people’s lives, Chris and Pat have had their share of sadness, when at the age of eighteen, their son Robert, suffered a near fatal head injury. This was a life changing situation, which required great courage and determination on the part of their son Robert as well as unrelenting support from their Daughter Tracey, for Robert to regain his life after this tragic event.
Chris also writes newspaper features and magazine articles, and a recent publication was featured in the magazine 'Shipping Today & Yesterday’. It is entitled S.S. Talthybius 1944 to 1971, which was the Blue Funnel Ship on which he sailed to the Far East in 1967. The voyage included a visit to Shanghai in the People’s Republic of China at the height of the Proletarian Cultural Revolution, under the chairmanship of leader Moa Zedong. The story of what happened during this visit including an encounter with the military 'Red Guard', is detailed in Chris’ memoir entitled 'Funny How Things Work Out'.
Since Chris and his wife Pat retired, they are enjoying overseas travel, having taken holidays in Australia and China, plus numerous cruises with P&O cruise lines, and hopefully, there is much more travel to come. All this has provided Chris with additional material of life experiences, which he has included in some of his books.