Crispian was born in Falmouth, Cornwall in 1966. He is married to Tori and has 2 children, Indie and Peter. As a child himself Crispian moved around Cornwall from Falmouth to Praze-an-Beeble and finally to Tregajorran. The one thing Crispian showed any promise at as a child was as a hooker for Helston School rugby team. He had county trials to play for Cornwall under 16’s but moved to Durham the next week following the unexpected death of his father.
At Durham Crispian completely failed to make it as a bass guitarists in a famous rock and roll band, but after tenaciously fiddling about with a Sinclair ZX81 in his bedroom he turned out to be a reasonably competent computer programmer. After studying Software Engineering at Teesside University Crispian moved to Hampshire and worked as a software developer. He moved from software development into systems integration and test engineering and finally as a software test manager before becoming a freelance IT consultant specialising in strategies and management for the validation and verification of complex and critical IT systems. It is as dull as it sounds.
Crispian is a founding member of the Hampshire Skeptics Society and Winchester Skeptics. Winchester Skeptics' arrange monthly talks from eminent scientists, academics, broadcasters and entertainers and cover a variety of topics from an evidence based perspective. Crispian is also the Orwell Prize long-listed author of the popular blog, The Reason Stick, that uses satire to highlight irrational beliefs.
A few years ago Crispian and his family bought an old listed thatched school house in Wiltshire which they have restored and renovated. It all sounds rather idyllic, and indeed it was until Crispian was diagnosed with cancer on his 49th birthday.
I am the co-founder and Vice President of the Hampshire Skeptic Society and Winchester Skeptics in the Pub as well as the author of the award winning blogs: The Reason Stick and Always Look on the Bright Side of Death in which I duly give un-evidenced beliefs the utter lack of respect they deserve.
I have been collecting records since I was 14, and despite a temporary move to CDs in 1990 I am now once again buying more vinyl than my wife tells me I have space to store.
I derive great pleasure from sitting in my garden watching my wife and head gardener weeding, pruning planting and digging. Sometimes I even help her.
I am a senior software test architect specialising in the definition of test strategies, processes, tools and the leadership required to integrate and verify complex IT systems prior to critical deployments.
Winchester Skeptics hosts monthly talks by academics, scientists, broadcasters and various subject matter experts in a wide variety of topics. The common thread of these talks is to approach the subject from an evidenced-based perspective. Each talk is followed by a lively Q&A session where audience members will have the opportunity to put any questions to the guest speaker and further explore the topics in more detail. Anyone is most welcome and talks are usually held at the Discovery Centre in Winchester on the last Thursday of the month.
In the words of Dr. Steven Novella: "A skeptic is one who prefers beliefs and conclusions that are reliable and valid to ones that are comforting or convenient, and therefore rigorously and openly applies the methods of science and reason to all empirical claims, especially their own. A skeptic provisionally proportions acceptance of any claim to valid logic and a fair and thorough assessment of available evidence, and studies the pitfalls of human reason and the mechanisms of deception so as to avoid being deceived by others or themselves. Skepticism values method over any particular conclusion.''
Long listed for the Orwell 2011 prize in the blogging category for the the satirical blog: "Science, Reason and Critical Thinking".
Winner of the 2016 Ockham Editor's Choice Award.
Winner of the 2017 Ockham Award for the best skeptic blog for the blog "Always Look on the Bright Side of Death".