Andrew is a creative and experienced PR and communications professional who has run and managed his own businesses for three decades. He has helped clients sell their companies for millions, contributed to blue chip brands becoming bigger and given dynamic entrepreneurs the confidence to believe in the power of traditional and online PR, marketing and communications.
He says: “Standing out from the crowd has never been more challenging. We are busier communicating with each other and more connected globally than we’ve ever been. But remember, you only have to target, engage and communicate with dozens, hundreds or thousands of people, not millions, billions or trillions.That’s a much less daunting prospect, one you can achieve with the right traditional and online PR communications strategies and tactics in place to ensure your voice is heard loud and clear where it matters most.”
Andrew handled Boddingtons Bitter during its “Cream of Manchester” heyday, developing innovative sports and cultural partnerships with TV and media platforms. Clients have also included a convicted armed bank robber and another who did eighteen months prison time for blackmail, although he didn’t know about their colourful backstories at the time.
If he did, he would have asked them more about their motivations. That’s because Andrew is also a crime novelist who has published three books independently, including All Down the Line in 2020.
“I’d quizzed them more about their experiences. After all, you cannot beat hard-boiled grim subject matter. If you’re into the likes of James Lee Burke, James Cain, James Ellroy, Dennis Lehane, Elmore Leonard, Ted Lewis, Ed McBain and Jim Thompson, you’ll see where I am coming from.”
A Master of Arts, Novel Writing, from the University of Manchester, he is currently working on Skin Deep, a Manchester crime thriller, and Signature, about the last days of Charles ‘Sonny’ Liston in Las Vegas.
Andrew says crime fiction, like all other forms of communication, has a duty engage, educate and as well as entertain. ‘The memorable books are the ones you’re still thinking about 48-hours after you finished reading.”