Chris Kitchin is currently a Professor Emeritus at the University of Hertfordshire and a freelance writer of astrophysics books. From 1987 to 2001, he was director of the University’s Observatory and from 1996 to 2001, he was also head of the Division of Physics and Astronomy. He took early retirement in 2001 in order to concentrate on his writing. Kitchin has written 14 single-author books, with several being translated into Chinese, German, Japanese and Polish and some having multiple editions. He has also contributed to another dozen or so books, and he has written hundreds of articles ranging from popular astronomy to specialist research. In 1997, he was awarded the title of Professor of the Public Understanding of Astronomy.