Andrew Smyth

After graduating from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, Andrew spent a couple of years attempting to break into the film industry (including an unenviable job as Michael Winner’s assistant). When not working in films, he started up a building business and carried out work both in the UK and later in the South of France.

On returning to the UK, he established a company to manufacture a range of public transport seating, which won the 1980 Design Council Award. Eventually the seating was installed in bus stations and shelters throughout the country with licensees in Japan and the USA. Over the next twenty years the company diversified into the manufacture of architectural glazing and by the time it was sold, it had a workforce of some 60 people.

Andrew then concentrated on his main interests: sailing and writing. With his wife he explored the Mediterranean extensively in their catamaran, moving on to the Red Sea, East Africa and the Far East, returning to the Caribbean and the USA. He has written frequently about his travels for all the main yachting magazines. He also wrote and published an Introduction to the Canal du Midi, which was the inspiration for Rick Steins’ TV series. His first novel, Caesar’s Passage, was short-listed for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel award. His second, a thriller called Grave Island, is due out in the summer of 2018.

Andrew is married with two adult children.