Andrew Martin (born 6 July 1962) is an English novelist, rail historian, documentary maker, journalist and musician.
Andrew Martin | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 6 July 1962 York, Yorkshire, England |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Genre | Crime Fiction |
| Notable works | Jim Stringer, Steam Detective |
| Website | |
| martinesque | |
Martin was brought up in Yorkshire, studied at Merton College, Oxford, and qualified as a barrister.[1] He has since worked as a freelance journalist for a number of publications while writing novels, starting with Bilton, a comic novel about journalists, and The Bobby Dazzlers, a comic novel set in the North of England, for which he was named Spectator Young Writer of the Year.
The Guardian claimed Bilton and The Bobby Dazzlers "rank high in the lists of the best comic novels published in the past 10 years".[2]
His series of detective novels about Jim Stringer, a railwayman reassigned to the North Eastern Railway police in Edwardian England, includes The Necropolis Railway (set on the real London Necropolis Railway), The Blackpool Highflyer, The Lost Luggage Porter, Murder at Deviation Junction, Death on a Branch Line, The Last Train to Scarborough, The Somme Stations (Winner of the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award 2011)[3] and The Baghdad Railway Club.[4]
In 2015, he released The Yellow Diamond, A Crime of the Super-Rich, a detective novel set in London's Mayfair. In summer 2017, he released 'Soot' an acclaimed crime novel set in 18th-century York.[5]
He has also written a number of works of non-fiction. Railway-related titles include Underground Overground, A Passenger's History of the Tube; Belles and Whistles, Five Journeys Through Time on Britain's Trains and Night Trains, The Rise and Fall of the Sleeper.[6]
Other non-fiction works include How to Get Things Really Flat;[7] Ghoul Britannia and Flight by Elephant about Gyles Mackrell and his Burmese, elephant-assisted wartime rescue mission, published in 2013.
In addition, he is the editor of a dictionary of humorous quotations: Funny You Should Say That: A Compendium of Jokes, Quips and Quotations from Cicero to the Simpsons.
His works for television and radio include: Between the Lines, Railways in Fiction and Film (2008),[8] Disappearing Dad, Fathers in Literature (2010),[9] The Trains that Time Forgot: Britain's Lost Railway Journeys (2015),[10] all in the Timeshift series, and three essay series for Radio 3, The Sound and The Fury (2013),[11] England Ejects (2014), The Further Realm (2015).[12] He also writes short stories for the Calm app.[1]
Martin writes and performs music under the name Brunswick Green.[13]
Martin lives in north London with his wife and sons.
Bibliography
edit- Bilton. Faber & Faber. 1999. ISBN 0-571-19565-2.
- The Bobby Dazzlers. Faber & Faber. 2002. ISBN 0-571-21229-8.
- The Yellow Diamond, Faber & Faber, 2015. ISBN 978-0-571-28820-5
- Soot, Corsair, 2017 (ISBN 978-1472152435)
- The Martian Girl, Corsair, 2018 (ISBN 978-1472152466)
- The Winker, Corsair, 2019 (ISBN 9781472153975)
- Jim Stringer, Steam Detective, novels
- The Necropolis Railway. Faber & Faber. 2002. ISBN 0-571-20991-2.
- The Blackpool Highflyer. Faber & Faber. 2005. ISBN 0-571-21902-0.[2]
- The Lost Luggage Porter. Faber & Faber. 2007. ISBN 0-571-21904-7.
- Murder at Deviation Junction. Faber & Faber. 2008. ISBN 0-571-22966-2.
- Death on a Branch Line. Faber & Faber. 2008. ISBN 0-571-22967-0.
- The Last Train to Scarborough. Faber & Faber. 2009. ISBN 0-571-22969-7.
- The Somme Stations. Faber & Faber. 2011. ISBN 0-5712-4964-7.
- The Baghdad Railway Club. Faber & Faber. 2012. ISBN 0-5712-4961-2.
- Night Train to Jamalpur. Faber & Faber. 2014. ISBN 0-5712-8410-8.
- Powder Smoke (Jim Stringer Book 10), Corsair, 2021 (ISBN 1472154835)
- The Night in Venice (as A.J. Martin), Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2024 (ISBN 9781399608033)
- Non-fiction
- How to Get Things Really Flat: A Man's Guide to Ironing, Dusting and Other Household Arts. Short Books. 2008. ISBN 1-906021-46-5
- Funny You Should Say That: A Compendium of Jokes, Quips and Quotations from Cicero to the Simpsons. Penguin 2006. ISBN 978-0140515091.
- Ghoul Britannia, Notes on a Haunted Island. Short Books. 2009. ISBN 1-906021-85-6
- Underground, Overground: A Passenger's History of the Tube. Profile Books. 2012. ISBN 1-846684-77-3[14][15]
- Flight by Elephant, World War II's most Daring Jungle Mission. Fourth Estate. 2013. ISBN 0007461526
- Belles & Whistles, Five Journeys Through Time on Britain's Trains. Profile Books, 2014. ISBN 9781 78125 212 3.
- Night Trains, The Rise and Fall of the Sleeper, Profile Books, 2017 ISBN 9781781255599
- Seats of London: A Field Guide to London Transport Moquette Patterns, Safe Haven Books, 2019 ISBN 9781916045316
- Steam Trains Today: Journeys Along Britain's Heritage Railways, Profile Books, 2021 (ISBN 1788161440)
- Métropolitain: An Ode to the Paris Métro, Little, Brown, 2023[16]
References
edit- ^ "Andrew Martin".
- ^ a b Marchant, Ian (11 September 2004). "Oysters and Bass". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
- ^ "Andrew Martin".
- ^ "Andrew Martin home page". Retrieved 23 July 2015.
- ^ "The best recent crime novels – review roundup". TheGuardian.com. 25 August 2017.
- ^ "Andrew Martin | the Guardian". TheGuardian.com.
- ^ "How to Get Things Really Flat by Andrew Martin". 5 April 2012.
- ^ "BBC Four - Timeshift, Series 8, Between the Lines - Railways in Fiction and Film".
- ^ "BBC - BBC TV blog: Disappearing Dad: Is fiction better off without fathers?".
- ^ "BBC Four - Timeshift, Series 15, the Trains That Time Forgot: Britain's Lost Railway Journeys".
- ^ "BBC Radio 3 - the Essay, the Sound and the Fury".
- ^ "BBC Radio 3 - the Essay, the Further Realm, the Further Realm: Episode 3".
- ^ "Brunswick Green".
- ^ Fort, Tom (1 May 2012). "Underground Overground by Andrew Martin: review". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
- ^ Self, Will (24 May 2012). "Underground, Overground by Andrew Martin – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
- ^ Meades, Jonathan (24 July 2023). "Skeletons, assassins and freaks – the secrets of the Paris Métro". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 22 September 2023.