Andrew Martin grew up in Yorkshire. After qualifying as a barrister, he won The Spectator Young Writer of the Year Award, 1988, which deflected him into a writing career. After holding staff jobs on several papers and magazines, he became a freelance journalist in which capacity he has tended to write about the north, class, trains, seaside towns and eccentric individuals rather than the doings of the famous, although he did once loop the loop in a biplane with Gary Numan. He has written for The Guardian, the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, the Independent and Granta, among many other publications. His columns have appeared in ES Magazine, the Independent on Sunday and the New Statesman

His first novel, Bilton, was a satire on lifestyle journalism set in the near future. His second, The Bobby Dazzlers, was a crime novel set in contemporary York.

The Necropolis Railway, the first of the series of historical thrillers featuring the gauche young railwayman turned railway policeman, Jim Stringer, was published in 2002. It was followed by The Blackpool Highflyer, The Lost Luggage Porter, Murder at Deviation Junction, Death on A Branch Line, and The Last Train to Scarborough. All of these railway novels are published by Faber. Murder at Deviation Junction and Death on a Branch Line were both shortlisted for the Ellis Peters Historical Crime Awards in 2007 and 2008; Andrew Martin was shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Dagger In The Library Award 2008 for the entire series. The new Jim Stringer novel, The Somme Stations, is out on March 3rd.

Andrew Martin has also edited a dictionary of humorous quotations: Funny You Should Say That, published by Penguin. His book explaining housework to his fellow men: How To Get Things Really Flat: A Man’s Guide to Ironing, Dusting and Other Household Arts was published by Short Books in 2008. (It was a Book of The Week on Radio Four). His book about British ghosts in fiction and 'fact', Ghoul Britannia, came out in 2009 from Short Books. It includes his short story, The Secret Trust (or Little Jack's). Andrew Martin has written other short stories, and two episodes of the Radio Four detective series, Baldi, starring David Threlfall.