It seems to be obligatory to include an ‘about the author’ page on a website of this sort. To that end, this page has been added to Mark Chirnside’s Reception Room. It is also hoped it will serve as a cure for insomnia!

Mark Chirnside is, at this time of writing, a twenty-two year old graduate from the United Kingdom . He is less than six feet tall by a mere few inches, of average to slim build and possesses a full head of hair. (As does his father.) His hair is best described as brown and long, sometimes with blonde dye inserted at random intervals. He generally appears cheerful, wears non-leather shoes and possesses a sharp pair of eyes coloured a greenish-blue. His degree is a combined History & Politics (Bachelor of Arts).

As this website shows, he is interested in a large number of ocean liners – a curious number of which sank. Although Mark has concentrated his research into the Olympic, Titanic and Britannic, he has also deviated into the history of several other contemporary ocean liners such as the ‘Magic Stick’ and the Aquitania. He finds it fascinating to look up obscure technical details in the hope of discovering something interesting, developing hypotheses, and generally travelling to archives and getting his hands dirty. He is also interested in trying to find ‘new’ information, if for no other reason that to disprove the idea that nothing new can be learned about the ‘Olympic’ class ships. On the rare occasion that he learns something new, he finds it exceptionally exciting and tends to repeat this ‘new’ information to as many unfortunate people as happen to be nearby. As yet, he has not won any ‘golden turkey awards’ for the worst Titanic-related book to be published. He is one of the youngest non-fiction authors in the United Kingdom.

His interests outside of maritime history include a number of other areas of history such as the modern history of Korea; listening to a variety of music; the usual sort of activities pursued by the student species; attending cinema; poetry – both reading and writing; trying out the occasional daring vegetarian recipe from a cookery book; a little photography; and regular attempts to stay in shape.

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