Eleanor Knowles

Food and engineering are the twin strands of my DNA ... I'm a civil engineer who loves cooking and writing, but not necessarily in that order. From working as a coastal engineer to renovating houses, I soon discovered that making concrete isn't so different from making cakes, except that sometimes the cakes are lighter.

Now I'm out of the hard hat and working at the computer, researching current and past engineering projects, and writing online biographies of famous engineers on the fab www.engineering-timelines.com website. To avoid piling on the pounds I take a keen interest in healthy eating, not necessarily always achieving it, but trying to strike a balance between delicious and fattening. I also love to devote spare time to creating recipes and short stories, quite often with a food-related theme.

Talking of short stories, don't you find one is just the right length for a coffee break? Put the kettle on then, and I'll race you to the biscuit tin...