I was born in Glasgow in January 1942. I never knew my father. He was killed, in December that same year, fighting in North Africa. Before my mother got married, she had been 'in service' with an upper-class family of the town. After twelve years of marriage she was left to raise me and my two older sisters and an older brother. Grove Street School saw me through my unexciting primary education. Just before my twelfth birthday I was catapulted from the slums of Glasgow into a new reality at Queen Victoria School in the village of Dunblane. For the next six years I was transformed by the discipline, comfort and character-building of that military boarding school for the sons of Scottish servicemen. The story of my childhood is told in my first book, "27, Raglan Street".In 1959 I left my secondary school to enter a career in the building industry, designing and managing mechanical building services for commercial, medical, public and military establishments. My 47 years in this field was split between project managing as a contractor with Kvaerner, Sulzer Infra, Thermal Transfer and Scottish & Southern Energy, and as a design engineer in architectural and engineering practices with Ove Arup, Wylie Shanks, Irons Foulner, and Kenneth Munro. My broad experience of the politics, in-fighting, and the rampant abuse of authority by people in power, served me well in creating the story for my second book, "Achilles Heel." Aside from my career, I have many other interests including, from my youth, writing stories and poetry. That has always been especially fulfilling and became the genesis of this, my third book, "A Poetic Quair & Textbook". Robert Campbell Chessar
