Dominic Hames is the youngest child of the Welsh politician Aubrey Hames, and his wife Mary. Entering the world two weeks earlier than expected, he came close to ruining his father’s best chance of becoming an MP, although research for this book has shown that ultimately it made no difference. A coastal engineer by trade, he is a visiting lecturer at the Universities of Brunel, East London and IHE Delft, and has recently left a career in industry to take up a senior lecturer post at the University of the West of England in Bristol. He lives just outside Penarth with his wife Ruth, and two children.