Andy was born in 1955 in Leicester, UK and was brought up on tales of the burghers stuffing the town walls with wool during the Royalist siege of 1645.
He graduated Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from University College London in 1977. He started his career in the law the following year and has appeared as advocate from rent tribunals to the Privy Council. His practice specialises in business law. Andy's historical research includes extensive period legal studies. A prolific writer, he has sought to apply the lessons learned from legal history in his articles on law and practice. In Family Inheritance: Tunnel Vision (1991) he proved the continuing relevance of the jurist Frederic Maitland's (1850-1906) take on the qualified success of the law reforms of the 1870's:
The forms of action we have buried, but they still rule us from their graves.
Andy will do his best to respond to any query on Victorian laws and the civil and criminal legal systems.
He combined his passion for hill-walking with historical research in a coast-to-coast trek in 2006 from Culloden through Glen Affric (Scottish Highlands) in search of evidence of the Chisholm clan.
His theatrical performances began with Hunter in Snow White at the age of eight to the school hard case's Bear: after being rolled around the stage for far too long, Andy used his nascent powers of advocacy to persuade the beast that the scene should move the storyline forward, and the show must go on. He wrote and performed Henry VIII and Thomas More for the Tower of London Education Authority (1977). In the Edinburgh Fringe (1977) he played Blind Man in Speight's If There Weren't Any Blacks You'd Have to Invent Them, Claudius to Paul Mooney's Hamlet (1983), and more recently the chap who has to dress up as the girl in A Midsummer Night's Dream [review on www.shakespeare-revue.com], and the Reverend Chasuble in The Importance of Being Earnest (see photograph) both with Ovo Theatre Company. He loves performance poetry especially Thomas Hardy and Federico Garcia Lorca and tries to slip in one or two of his own in the absence of eternal vigilance from the director.
His creative writing includes short stories, drama, screenplays, and poetry. He can occasionally be coaxed into reading the odd snatch of contemporary verse, but his love affairs with Hardy and Lorca are well-known. He has set Hardy's poem "Wessex Heights" (1896) for tenor voice and edited and directed The Dynasts for a centenary performance in 2008 (Ver Poets http://www.verpoets.org.uk/). He is allegedly putting together a drama on Lorca and Neruda.
A father of four, Andy lives in Hatfield 20 miles north of London, UK where Queen Elizabeth I spent her formative years and far too near to the brooding presence of the Belgic oppidum at Wheathampstead assaulted by Julius Caesar.
Flower of the Legion (Weathampstead 54 BC — Sr. Albans Market 2008 AD)
Where they fall
These dead hordes,
The chopped-down foe, lie
Arma virumque-ed
By the Roman blade.
Into ploughshares shall
They beat their swords
Or into gladioli.
Some of this author's contributions
- The Dynasts: Dated, Durable, Defiant — A Performance Poet's Perspective
- When does Thomas Hardy's "The Withered Arm" Take Place?
Last modified 19 January 2009