The author was the third generation of his family to engage in the shipbuildng and repairing industry. He rose to become managing director at Austin & Pickersgill in Sunderland and then, following a merger, managing director of North East Shibpuilders Limited (NESL). He supervised much of the launch of the Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) in 1967 while he was shipyard director at John Brown & Co. This book covers briefly the careers of his grandfather and father, but much of it is devoted to his own career. Parker died in 2011, aged 82.