Biography

Andrew Martin went to school in York, and to university at Oxford. After qualifying as a barrister, he won The Spectator Young Writer of the Year Award for 1988, which deflected him into a writing career. His first novel, Bilton, satirised the kind of ridiculous lifestyle journalism that Martin often found himself writing. It was followed by The Bobby Dazzlers, a crime novel set in York and featuring a 'professional Yorkshireman' called Brian Butteridge.

In 2001 came The Necropolis Railway, the first of Martin’s historical thrillers featuring the Edwardian (at that point) railwayman, Jim Stringer. There have so far been ten Stringer novels; the latest is Powder Smoke, which is a sort of Western with trains, set partly in Leeds. The books have received several Crime Writers' Association shortlistings, and The Somme Stations won the CWA Ellis Peters Award for Historical Fiction in 2011.

Martin’s novel, The Yellow Diamond, is about a police unit created to investigate the super-rich of Mayfair.

Martin’s other recent (non-railway) novels are Soot, set in late 18th century York; The Martian Girl, about a late-Victorian mind-reader; The Winker, set in London, Paris and Nice in the 1970s,

Martin’s non-fiction includes a book in which he explains housework to his fellow men. It is called How To Get Things Really Flat: A Man’s Guide to Ironing, Dusting and Other Household Arts. Ghoul Britannia is Martin’s account of British ghosts in fiction and 'fact'. It includes his short story, The Secret Trust (or Little Jack's). Both titles were published by Short Books. His history of the London Underground, Underground, Overground: A Passenger's History of the Tube, was published in 2012. In 2013, his account of the wartime adventures of Gyles Mackrell, tea planter and elephant expert, was published by Fourth Estate as Flight by Elephant: The Untold Story of World's War 2's Most Daring Jungle Rescue. Belles & Whistles, Martin’s book comparing Britain’s railways of today with those of the ‘Golden Age’ was published by profile in 2014. His other non-fiction railway books are Night Trains, about European sleeper trains and Steam Trains Today, about British preserved, or heritage, railways.

For news of forthcoming titles, see 'News'.

Andrew Martin has written and presented TV documentaries. He regularly speaks in public (sometimes having been asked to do so), usually on historical fiction, crime fiction or railways.