Peter Berlin blames his parents for his circuitous career path. Their goal was for him to become an astronomer or a nuclear scientist, even though he really wanted to be a fireman.

Having looked in vain for courses in nuclear astronomy, he became a rocket scientist instead. After 25 years with various space agencies, he felt the time was ripe to climb back on the learning curve. To this end, he spends a third of the year accepting consultancy assignments, another third teaching rocket science at universities, and the third third writing his blockbuster novel.

When he returned to one of his former employers looking for consultancy jobs, the latter deported him first to Moscow, then to Kazakhstan, and finally to a remote corner of Siberia. Like Korolev, he eventually re-emerged from the permafrost and went so far as to find a permanent dwelling in the south of England - with occasional lapses as a guest lecturer in darkest Lapland.