Albert Ball is a retired electrical engineer who began his career in 1964 after being accepted by British Railways for an engineering sandwich course, spending alternate six monthly periods training in industry and studying at university. After qualifying he worked for the railway in Derby for six years, mainly on control systems for electric traction supplies on new and existing electrified lines.
In 1975 he attained professional status as a Chartered Engineer, becoming a full member of the then Institution of Electrical Engineers, now the Institution of Engineering and Technology. Also in 1975 he joined the UKAEA near Warrington, specialising in nuclear reactor control and safety systems. In 1989 he joined the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, a division of the Health and Safety Executive in Bootle, as a Principal Nuclear Inspector, specialising in the safety assessment of control, instrumentation and protection systems for power reactors and nuclear chemical plants.
He retired in 2012 at the age of 65, since then largely spending his time reading widely on economic matters and in writing this book.
His very minor claim to fame came from his fascination with computer programming, beginning in 1982 when he bought one of Clive Sinclair's Spectrum computers. He enjoyed some early success in writing Spectrum computer games, the most popular being Jumping Jack, published by Imagine Software in 1983, for which at only ten years old his son Stuart prepared all the graphics; followed by Rapscallion, published by Bug-Byte Software in 1984.
He is married, has three sons and one grandson, and lives in Southport, Merseyside, UK.