I’ve always been a writer.

At the age of six, I learned to hide the light from my torch under the bedclothes, so as not to be told off for reading long, long after lights out. Adventure stories were even more exciting when read illicitly, cocooned in a duvet, by the light of a torch which might’ve at any second flickered and died…

Even at that tender age, it seems I knew the written word was key to understanding and self-expression. My daytime attempts to increase my vocabulary included repeatedly lumping random letters together and asking my long-suffering mother if they formed a word.

I distinctly remember that she did once say ‘Nearly.’

At the age of seven, left bereft by the conclusion of the Star Wars saga, I took it upon myself to continue the adventure by writing the first of several (very) short stories featuring my favourite characters. My well-practised skill at grouping random letters of the alphabet together on paper was finally put to good use: bad guys from space had to have names. Preferably unpronounceable ones.

A year or two later and bored, I began writing poems and discovered I had a knack for writing in rhyme. That knack developed into a skill that proved essential years later at performing arts college, where I not only co-wrote plays but also became a go-to guy for song lyrics. I penned earnest and heart-wrenching verse for a musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet and took a stab at gothic comedy-horror music hall for Sweeney Todd. It’s over 25 years ago, but friends from college still sing those songs at me. They must’ve been okay.

At 19 I was bitten by the music bug that seems to run in my family, and, with a burgeoning confidence in my facial hair and lyrical abilities, formed my first band. I anointed myself vocalist and main songwriter and then found nine-to-five work to pay the rent and keep me in guitar strings whilst waiting for the record deal at the end of the rainbow to turn up.

After waiting for some years, changing jobs and haircuts a few times, and being told by colleagues everywhere I worked that I was wasted there and ought to write instead, I decided to fully commit to my love affair with English and made my natural talent my profession.

My recent large projects list includes the copy editing and proofreading of a luxury coffee table book for a major US cybersecurity multinational, a multi-authored book on engagement banking for a large Dutch tech company, and an illustrated gift book — written in the rhyming style of Dr. Seuss — for a UK employee engagement firm.

I’m an empathetic person with a natural ability to connect emotionally in writing, yet with a strong belief in the importance of attention to detail. If you want your copy or content to be punchy, powerful, warm, fun, accurate, irreverent, or inspirational — or possibly all of those — I’d love to hear from you.

Until I do, I’ll be cosy in my little house surrounded by trees on a farm outside Cambridge, busily tap-tapping and scribbling away for someone else. Or perhaps writing a song…

Feel free to say hello :)

Andy