Andy Griffee

Andy Griffee began writing the first of his 'tiller-thrillers' after completing a 25-year career as a journalist and senior manager at the BBC. He chose to base the Johnson & Wilde series of crime mysteries on England's canals and rivers because they can be inherently dangerous places and there are tensions between the different groups who use them - boat owners, boat renters, anglers, cyclists and walkers. Andy's hero is a journalist called Jack Johnson who lives on board his 62 feet long boat, Jumping Jack Flash, and takes it all over the country where he inevitably finds trouble waiting for him.

Andy was 57-years-old when his debut book (Canal Pushers) was published and he has released a new book every years since then (River Rats, Oxford Blues and Devil's Den). He is an unashamed champion of the older writer and agrees with Henry David Thoreau who wrote, "How vain it is to sit down and write when you have not yet stood up to live!"

Andy was born in Gibraltar, the eldest son of a physical training instructor who served for 21 years in the British Army. This meant that he grew up in garrison towns across England including Blandford, Colchester and Aldershot as well as overseas Army bases in Germany and Hong Kong. Aged 11, he won a place at The Duke of York's Royal Military School, a boarding school for the sons of soldiers which is located on top of the white cliffs of Dover. After narrowly escaping a career in the army and the law, he went on to study newspaper journalism at Highbury College in Portsmouth and subsequently worked as a local newspaper reporter on his home weekly, the Poole and Dorset Herald.

Having qualified as a senior reporter, he took three years away from the workplace to develop his love of reading and fiction. He gained a First Class BA (Hons) in Combined Studies (English and American Literature with Classics) at the University of Manchester. He then returned to journalism at the Bath Evening Chronicle before joining the BBC as a television reporter and producer on Points West, the regional news programme based in Bristol. He then rose rapidly through the BBC's ranks, moving on to become News Editor and then Head of BBC South in Southampton, Controller of BBC English Regions in Birmingham and finally Editorial Director in charge of the BBC's largest ever capital project, the redevelopment of BBC Broadcasting House in London.

After leaving the BBC, Andy worked as a media consultant in Dubai and Malaysia before embarking on his fiction writing career from his home in rural Worcestershire where a spectacular view of the Malvern Hills is a continual distraction. The day begins with a walk for his two dogs including Eddie, a border terrier who also features prominently in the books. Then it is back to the keyboard with occasional excursions to check on his rare breed pigs (Oxford Sandy and Blacks) or trips to the pub with his wife, Helen, in a 1964 Mk 1 Triumph Spitfire. Sometimes, these drives are one-way due to the ancient and unreliable nature of the car. Andy's holidays are occasionally spent on canals in hired narrowboats with friends and family, however there have been no real life murders.....so far.

Andy and Helen have two children, Will who is a journalist on the Daily Mail's sports online site and Ella, who is a self-employed fashion designer and maker of beautiful linen clothing.