Adrian Brown (historian)

Adrian Brown (born May 28th, 1969, Derbyshire, England) is a freelance writer and historian specialising in the development of nuclear weapons and associated technologies.

Born in Derbyshire, England, Brown was educated at St. John’s Primary School, Parks Secondary School, and Belper High School in Belper, Derbyshire. After leaving school at the age of 17, he spent a considerable length of time unemployed, before becoming a tour guide for The Arkwright Society at Sir Richard Arkwright’s Cromford Mill at Cromford in Derbyshire. When made redundant from there, and following another extended period of unemployment, he spent approximately three years working in a number of factory and warehousing positions. During this period, he also began working at a DJ, primarily at The George in Belper, where he worked two nights each week as one of the resident Rock DJs.

In September 1992, Brown began a four-year physics course at Manchester Metropolitan University, which he completed in July 1996 with the award of an upper second-class honours degree in Physics Studies and Scientific Instrumentation. During his time at university, Brown also became one of the main driving forces behind the creation of a student radio station for Manchester, rising to the position of Programme Controller within the Manchester Metropolitan Student’s Union Student Radio Society "(This society was later merged with the Manchester University Student Radio Society, and is unrelated to the current Internet-based MMSU student radio project)".

Brown’s final year degree dissertation, on research into the phenomenon of auroral displays, combined his twin interests of astronomy and the history of military technology and, in particular, nuclear weapons [Brown, A: "Aurora Prediction", Manchester Metropolitan University, 1996.] . From this arose a long-running (and continuing) project to document and detail every known and suspected nuclear explosion since 1945, and show how specific nuclear tests have advanced the technology of nuclear weapons.

Following his graduation, Brown trained as a physics lecturer, and worked at various colleges in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, teaching Physics, Astronomy and Information Technology. However, having become disillusioned with teaching as a result of increases in the amount of non-teaching-related paperwork, he left teaching and returned once more to working as a historian and guide at Cromford Mill. While there, he acted as one of the specialist historical advisers on the BBC TV productions, “Restoration” and “What The Industrial Revolution Did For Us”, both of which included on-location filming at Cromford Mill. As part of his duties while employed by at Cromford Mill, Brown also authored a number of publications for the Arkwright Society.

Brown is also considered to be one of the leading experts on the history of the San Francisco-based psychedelic bands, Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship. Besides maintaining a comprehensive and extensive website on the bands [http://www.airplane.freeserve.co.uk/airplane.htm] , Brown has written articles and provided in-concert photographs for the band’s semi-official fanzine, Holding Together, provided specialist information for books, and also occasionally joined the band on stage during their UK tours. This work earned him a "thank you" credit on the sleeve notes for the boxed set of CDs of the band's 2002 UK tour. He is also considered to be the leading expert on the life and career of the former MTV VJ and actress, China Kantner, having written her only full and authorised biography [Brown, A: "Moon, I'll Get It", "Holding Together #25", November 2000.] , and contributed specialist help to a number of magazine articles.

An experienced photographer, specialising in aviation and astronomical subjects, a number of Brown's astronomical photographs were published in the November 1989 issue of Astronomy Now magazine.

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