Chasing Tales is the first-hand account of a working man's travels round some of the world's hottest spots - literally and metaphorically. Written by Liverpool-born engineer, Ken Hopley, it spans his first sea-trip to Mexico in 1967 as a young Merchant Navy officer to being bombed in the Iran-Iraq War, from being awake during an appendicitis operation in a Syria hospital to an enforced retirement after suffering two strokes aged 65, giving a funny and uncompromising view of a changed man and a changing world. This book contains his experience of 50 years working all over the world as an engineer, from major oil and gas companies (including the shady ones) to oil rigs, FPSO's refineries, gas plants and universities in some extremely interesting places, with highly interesting people. And yes, by interesting, he almost always means odd. And sometimes just downright dangerous.