John Ponsonby Radioastronomer

By Geoff Meggitt

John Ponsonby had, as a diplomat's son, an upbringing largely separated from his parents in boarding schools around the world. He was proud of his immediate family of academics and clerics and felt the weight of his ancestry; there was much to live up to. A sense of entitlement was bred into him. He spent his working life as a radio astronomer at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire, England, a world-renowned centre for radio-astronomy. His interest was in the reception and processing of the faint signals from the cosmos and he made several important contributions to the field. However he was blighted by the failure of one particular project and his career effectively stalled -- not least because of his difficulty with personal relations with his colleagues. He retired embittered. The book is a frank but sympathetic account of his life written by a friend of a difficult man who experienced (he thought) failure in the face of great expectations. In turn he was arrogant, entertaining, depressive, generous, infuriating, very clever and, just possibly, neuro-divergent.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0957554990
• ISBN13: 9780957554993
• Release Date: August 2025
• Publisher: Pitchpole Books
• Length: 170 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.8" x 8.3"