In 1971, Andy Blackford was voted
Man Least Likely to Make Thirty
by his fellow students.
He was born in Middlesbrough without incurring serious injury. He spent much of his childhood in a hut near Whitby. When he was nine, His father built him a small boat and encouraged him to row it out to sea.
Leaving Oxford with a useless degree, Andy disappointed nearly everyone by joining a rock band.
The band disappointed the record buying public and his friend, the editor and writer Susan Hill, encouraged him to write. Accrual World is probably the world’s first and only accountancy novel.
There followed books on implausibly disparate subjects including the R&B band, The Animals, and a history of the discotheque. Meanwhile, he amassed an impressive horde of failed careers, including music publisher and professional skateboarder, before being invited to write columns for Runners World and Diver magazines.
He also won the Independent/Scholastic Children’s Story of the Year prize and has since produced twenty books for young people. However, his main qualification for immortality remains the ad campaign for Um Bongo.
Until recently, Andy worked as a prison chaplain, teaching Buddhist meditation and Dharma in the East of England.
Reunited with John Foggin, his high school English teacher and by now a much-admired poet, they agreed to write a poem each, every week for a year. The result, Gap Year, won the Sentinel Poetry Book Prize in 2014.
Since then, Andy has produced four solo collections.
In 2021 he created The Stand-Up Tragedy Tour, combining poetry and anecdotes to entertain audiences with his many obsessions.
