Books

Andrew Martin’s first novel, Bilton, satirised the lifestyle journalism he often found himself writing. It was followed by The Bobby Dazzlers, a crime novel set in York and featuring a 'professional Yorkshireman' called Brian Butteridge, who commissions some young burglars to steal on his behalf.

In 2001 came The Necropolis Railway, the first of Martin’s ten historical thrillers featuring the Edwardian (at that point) railwayman, Jim Stringer. The tenth is Powder Smoke, a sort of Western with trains, set partly in Leeds. The books received several Crime Writers' Association shortlistings, and The Somme Stations won the CWA Ellis Peters Award for Historical Fiction in 2011.

Martin’s (fairly) recent non-railway novels include The Yellow Diamond, about a police unit created to investigate the super-rich of Mayfair; Soot, about the murder of a silhouette painter in late 18th century York; The Martian Girl, about a late-Victorian mind-reader; The Winker, about a murderous failed pop star in the 1970s. The Night in Venice (written as AJ Martin) is set in 1911 and concerns an over-imaginative 14-year old girl who has either killed her guardian on holiday in Venice, or merely dreamt that she has done so.

Martin’s non-fiction, like his fiction, includes some railway books. His history of the London Underground is Underground, Overground: A Passenger's History of the Tube. Belles & Whistles compares Britain’s railways of today with those of the ‘Golden Age’. Night Trains is about the rise and fall of of European sleeper trains. Steam Trains Today describes Britain’s heritage railways. Seats of London is a celebration of moquette on London Tubes and buses; Metropolitain is an appreciation of the Paris Metro.

Martin’s non-railway non-fiction includes the self-explanatory How To Get Things Really Flat: A Man’s Guide to Ironing, Dusting and Other Household Arts. Ghoul Britannia is an account of British ghosts in fiction and 'fact'. (It also includes his short story, The Secret Trust.) Flight by Elephant: The Untold Story of World's War 2's Most Daring Jungle Rescue describes the wartime adventures of Gyles Mackrell, tea planter and elephant expert. Yorkshire, There and Back is Martin’s autobiographical account of Yorkshire.

Andrew Martin is currently writing a book about trains to the seaside.