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PAUL ANDREWS, WRITER AND AUTHOR
Paul Andrews contributes articles to the Yorkshire Post and is the author of two novels.
Paul Andrews is a former mayor of Malton, a former Ryedale District Councillor, and is now an honorary alderman of North Yorkshire Council. HIs personal profile CV is set out under "About".
Paul was elected to Ryedale District council as a Liberal Democrat in 2003 and became a Malton Town councillor in 2007. He went independent in 2004. He did not stand for election to North Yorkshire council when Ryedale merged with the county council in April 2023, and resigned from Malton Town Council in April 2024. He is still a local parish councillor in his own village and is a member of the Malton and Norton towns Partnership.
Paul has University of London honours degrees in Law and Classics. He is a retired solicitor. He worked in private practice and for many years at a senior level in local government. He left local government in 1997 and retired in 2008.
During his time as district councillor, Paul published a website which records important documents he wrote for the council and articles he wrote for the press. This website was last updated in 2019. For technical reasons Paul decided to "archive" this earlier site and to replace it with this site.
Please find the earlier version of Paul's web site by clicking here. It contains news items and newspaper articles which cover a range of subjects from Iraq to Car Parks and Farming to Government.
Paul is the author of two novels, "The Loner" and "The Warrior from the Tin Islands".
As regards "The Loner", this has its own website which can be accessed with the following link: The Loner This website has also not been updated, and copies of "The Loner" are not available from the Matador site. The Loner website is due for updating and will also be archived within this website.
Please refer to "Books" (above) for details of "The Warrior from the Tin Islands"
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Paul Andrews
This is my background ....
PAUL ANDREWS – CV - Achievements directly related to writing highlighted in bold
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War years |
Father, a curate in a church in London met mother, a short hand typist, the “akela” of the church cubs. Father’s father, a Conservative voter, a rich qualified surveyor and building firm owner who built bespoke houses for wealthy clients. Mother’s father, a Labour voter, a London docker who had been wounded and invalided out of World War I. Politically, I’ve heard both sides point of view, and believe I can see both sides of an argument! |
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1947 |
I was bourn at Towcester. Dad was a curate |
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Family moved to Shrewsbury, Dad a curate in charge of a small local church |
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Dad vicar of Ettingshall church. An industrial parish in the West Midlands. |
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1962 |
Family moved to St Andrew’s Church, Birchills, Walsall, another industrial parish |
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1955 – July 1965 |
Five years at Prestfelde Prep School, Shrewsbury followed by another five years at Ellesmere College, a boys’ boarding “public” school at Ellesmere, Shropshire. Started learning Latin at the age of 9 (amongst other subjects) |
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1963 |
Started learning Classical Greek |
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1965 - 1968 |
Dismal A level results and personal indecision led to me losing out on university entry and ending up at the College of Commerce in Liverpool studying an external University of London degree in Law. Law bored me, and I continued to read Latin and Greek texts in spare time. I finished with a lower 2nd Class honours London University LLB degree I joined the Liverpool University Potholing Club (LUPC) |
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1968 -9 |
Liverpool Law School, studying Law Society professional exams. |
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1969-71 |
Articled to a Jewish firm |
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1971-2 |
18 months working as a legal assistant at Liverpool Regional Hospital Board |
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July 1972 |
I qualify as a solicitor. |
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1973 |
I move to Bristol area and work for Sodbury Rural District Council |
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August 1979 |
Awarded London University upper second class honours degree in Classics as an external student – I had arranged my own correspondence course to cover the syllabus set by the university and corresponded with university lecturers. Same exams as internal students |
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Early 1980’s |
Re-union of former members of LUPC. We called ourselves “The Northern Boggarts”. In 1983/84 I do a correspondence course with London School of Journalism – on writing articles and short stories. Northern Boggarts have a bi-monthly journal describing caving trips. I contribute lots of articles and get a taste for creative writing. |
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1973 – 1997 |
Various appointments to a succession of local authorities: Sodbury RDC, Northavon DC, Kerrier DC (Cornwall), New Towns Commission (Corby), St. Helens Metropolitan Borough, finally ending up at Ryedale DC in 1988 as their chief solicitor |
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1989 - date |
I stop caving and start sailing (less strenuous but equally adventurous), first on the River Ouse, then with Royal Yorkshire Yacht Club at Bridlington, ending up with Scarborough Yacht Club in 1999. I still have a yacht in Scarborough Harbour and remain a member of SYC. |
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1991-2 |
Divorced from first wife, with whom I had had two sons. |
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1997 |
Following local government reorganisation, I go into private practice and join the Liberal Democrats. I run a LibDem campaign to build a joint use dry sports centre at Malton School – which eventually succeeds some years later against Conservative opposition. I begin writing letters to the local newspapers. I also join Habton Parish Council and lead a campaign to save our local pub – which succeeds. |
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2000 |
I remarry and move into house in Great Habton, where we still live. I am asked by one local newspaper (Gazette and Herald) to write a paid monthly column – which I keep up for ten years. |
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2003 |
Elected District LibDem councillor for Malton ward (a three member ward) |
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2004 |
I join out of the LibDems and go independent |
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2006 - 10 |
I self-publish novel “The Loner” through Matador |
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2007 |
Re-elected district councillor for Malton as independent by four votes, and elected onto Malton Town Council |
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1997 - 2008 |
Four years working for a small legal firm, then agency work, at first working 11 months a year, then 9 months and finally 6 months. The crash of 2008 wrecks the housing market, including the legal conveyancing business and I retire permanently from paid work. |
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2007 – 2023 |
I fight and win four elections for Ryedale DC’s Malton ward as an independent. This was a three member ward, which I shared initially with a LibDem and a Conservative, and which eventually had three independents. I wrote all my own election campaign literature. Ryedale District Council ceased to exist on 1st April 2023, and I did not contest any of the divisions of the new authority.
As a district councillor, I campaigned against Council car park charges and eventually persuaded the local estate company to take back the town centre car park from the council and make it free. I led a successful campaign against building a new superstore on another council car park which would have destroyed Malton Town Centre shops. I opposed the Environment Agency’s plans to take down flood defences protecting farms and villages, including persuading Ryedale to pay for a hydrological engineer to negotiate with the Agency and getting a joint university team to look at a solution for flooding in Pickering. I raised £30,000 with the help of Frackfree to enable me to take legal proceedings against the government on fracking. I published articles and letters on all these matters in the local press. |
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2013 - 2016 |
I wrote the “Warrior from the Tin Islands” which has been printed on website “Lulu”, but not published |
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2016 – 2019 |
I was the elected Mayor of Malton. I raised £3,000 as Mayor for Acorn Community Trust, Malton Hospital and Malton in Bloom. I obtained a grant from Malton Town Council to restore the Assembly Room in Malton’s Georgian entertainment complex, The Milton Rooms. I initiatied the improvement of the look of the town through “Malton in Bloom”, and supported projects to improve green facilities for public use in the town, the restoration of the local cemetery chapel and the refurbishment of a public playing field and the refurbishment of our skate park. |
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2019 - 2020 |
Voted Chair of the local arts centre, The Milton Rooms, Malton, which I keep for a year. |
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2021 - 2023 |
Voted chair of Ryedale District Council’s Planning Committee and tried to get some sense into the Local Plan, which forces Malton to take 50% of new houses, when the infrastructure is inadequate. I was made an honorary alderman of Ryedale District Council before the Council ceased to exist – all honorary aldermen of the North Yorkshire districts automatically became honorary aldermen of the new North Yorkshire county. |
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2007 and 2020 - date |
Yorkshire Post accepts articles from me. |
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April 2024 |
I resign from Malton Town Council |
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