B R Johnstone

B R Johnstone taught physics and computing in Northamptonshire secondary schools for over thirty years, and never lost the habit of turning a hard question into a lesson plan. Former pupils remember the lunchtime club where faster-than-light travel, time machines and the latest computing breakthroughs were argued over with the help of a whiteboard and a packet of biscuits.

Retirement brought time to chase the subjects that move too fast for any curriculum - large language models, quantum computing, platform engineering, and the curious economics of cryptocurrency. Johnstone's books for CWMK set out to do what a good teacher does: start from what the reader already knows, avoid jargon where possible, explain it properly where not, and never pretend a difficult idea is simpler than it is.

Johnstone lives in Northampton, still reads the research papers so readers don't have to, and keeps a running list of questions from friends and family that each new book tries to answer.