Chris Bonnello

Chris Bonnello is an autistic writer, author and special needs tutor, formerly a primary school teacher. He is also a novelist, an award-winning writer and international speaker on autism issues, and author of autisticnotweird.com.

Bonnello was first assessed for autism in 1989, at the age of four. Despite a damning report into his deficiencies, he did not receive a diagnosis since he was deemed academically capable. At the age of ten, an educational psychologist reported him as having a “slightly odd personality”. Since his Asperger Syndrome diagnosis at the age of 25, he has turned his attitude around and defined himself by his strengths rather than his weaknesses, and encourages other autistic people to see their own strengths.

Having qualified as a teacher and worked in both primary and special education, he launched Autistic Not Weird in April 2015, to share his insights from both a personal and professional perspective. This venture has seen his website receive over 2.5 million page hits to date, and attracted over 130,000 followers to his Facebook page.

Bonnello delivers talks across Britain (and as far away as India and Australia), has been nominated for five awards to date (winning four), has played chess internationally (winning nothing), captains his local Boys’ Brigade company, and published his first non-fiction book in 2016. His novel series, Underdogs - a dystopian war series whose heroes are students from a special school – began in May 2019 and now stands at two novels published out of four.

His personality remains slightly odd.