Chasing Tales

Chasing Tales is the first-hand account of a working man's travels round some of the world's hottest spots - literally and metaphorically. Written by Liverpool-born engineer, Ken Hopley, it spans his first sea-trip to Mexico in 1967 as a young Merchant Navy officer to being bombed in the Iran-Iraq War, from being awake during an appendicitis operation in a Syria hospital to an enforced retirement after suffering two strokes aged 65, giving a funny and uncompromising view of a changed man and a changing world. This book contains his experience of 50 years working all over the world as an engineer, from major oil and gas companies (including the shady ones) to oil rigs, FPSO's refineries, gas plants and universities in some extremely interesting places, with highly interesting people. And yes, by interesting, he almost always means odd. And sometimes just downright dangerous.

Kenneth Philip Hopley was born in Walton, Liverpool, in 1947, which some might say was dangerous enough. After leaving school at 15, like most of his contemporaries, he trained as a marine engineer officer in Liverpool and started going away to sea. On leaving the Merchant Navy, Ken tried various and very mundane jobs in engineering in Liverpool but couldn't get ships and travel out of his head. He tried various factory jobs in engineering but found them too boring. Then he started working on pilot ships in the Mersey and Irish Sea. This was the beginning of a working life that wasn't what 'they all did', a life that took a young working-class lad to countries now vastly changed in terms of culture and politics - for better and for worse. The result of all this is a different kind of travel book. The 30 chapters, each a different adventure in a different world, offer a unique perspective on a life. Ken retired earlier than expected, due to having had two major strokes at the age of 65 that failed to finish him off. By then, the job had tried to finish him off several times, from being bombed in Basra in the Iran/Iraq War of 1980-88 to being almost entirely awake during an appendicitis operation in Homs, Syria. From possible encounters with the KGB and the Russian and American Mafia to definite encounters with poisonous snakes - both the reptilian and human variety. There are laughs amid the peril and of course a lot of booze. There is also some highly colourful language and his attempt to capture the syntax of the characters along the way, including his Scouse self, may not be to everyone's taste in our current climate. But this was a different climate, all 30 of them. He hopes you enjoy them as much as he did. Well, as much as he did writing about them in any case.