My father Harry was born in the small industrialised                                                     

town of Redditch, Worcestershire, and as it turned out

would remain a resident all of  his life

My mother Elsa had moved to England from the

the devastation of post-war Germany in search of a 

new beginning after working as a housekeeper for an

English family there.

They met, fell in love, and married. I arrived a year later in 1956 the first addition to the family, eight years later we were blessed with 

the arrival of my brother Stuart making the  Andrews family complete.

From an early age, it became obvious that I had inherited my father's artistic talent.

My brother was also creative and would go on to become a talented draughtsman, who in his spare time had a passion for restoring VW Beetles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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With the exception of art, my academic abilities were no more than average, and so at the age of 16, I enrolled at Stourbridge College of Art to study Graphic art.

After finishing my studies I obtained employment at Abel Morrall Ltd, one of many numerous old-established needle manufacturers upon whose success Redditch had thrived.

Now almost 200 years on they had found the need to diversify and had their own haberdashery department.

Not quite what this budding young artist had in mind and it wouldn't be long before I was reported to the manager for spending most of my time sketching, there and then my luck was to change.

Instead of the sack at the age of 19 I was offered an illustrator and designer job by the warehouse manager and his wife who were in the process of starting up a new arts and crafts department, and so I became the designer of soft toy and embroidery kits at ABELCRAFT LTD.