PART ONE
PAR TWO
Joined in the studio for this months book club with Sylvia Kent and Andrew Summers.
ANDREW SUMMERS
Was born within the sound of Bow Bells (on a quiet day), 18 months after World War II ended. He is the oldest of three brothers and is the son of a Polish immigrant, Kazimierz who had spent two years in a Soviet labour camp and an English rose Diana who had worked as a code breaker at Bletchley Park.
Andrew went to primary school in Hackney and then on the prestigious Brooke House comprehensive school, one of the first comprehensives to be set up in England. Other alumni of Brooke House were the former Queens Park Rangers and England footballer Rodney Marsh and a budding entrepreneur called Alan Sugar. Andrew was offered a Saturday job on Sugar’s stall selling car radios in Ridley Road market. However this was turned down as it interfered with Saturday morning football and clashed with a paper round.
After leaving school with five O-levels (excluding English) Andrew went on to Erith Technical College and studied computing. The only snag being (it was early days of computing) the college didn’t actually have any computers and practical experience had to gained at Imperial College in London. Nevertheless Andrew did get 3 A-levels, an Ordinary National Diploma in business studies and O-level in English at the fifth attempt!
After leaving Erith Andrew worked variously at London Zoo, (had nothing to do with animals), was a waiter at Pontins in Blackpool, sold women’s coats in D.H Evans, electrical goods in Selfridges and helped in a mental hospital. Andrew had spell as an assistant accountant in a paper company, purchased typewriters for the fledgling British Telecom then started a small printing company in Leigh on Sea where in 1984 he co-authored his first book “Getting Value from Your Printer”. There are no records of any sales of this book!
In 1989 Andrew left the world of printing and after a late in life ‘gap year’ moved into selling books working for Direct Books then fierce rivals of the Book People. Andrew next move with books was into export, and along with Glenis his wife (48 years married in 2015) created a European wide business through International Schools.
Andrew’s foray into writing and publishing began in 2006 following a very poor historical tour of Leigh-on-Sea and Hadleigh Castle where it turned out that those on the tour knew more about the area than the guide. Andrew then teamed up with John Debenham who had just completed a History degree and a year later the Essex Hundred a county history in 100 poems rolled off the press. Since then 11 more titles have been authored or edited and published under the Essex Hundred brand – mainly Essex based history, but including sailing, Soviet labour camps and a short history of Belgium. Apart from writing Andrew and John give illustrated Historical talks around the county.
Andrew lives in Hadleigh, Essex with Glenis. They have two grown up children and four grandchildren. They have no cats or dogs.
MORE ABOUT SYLVIA KENT
https://sylviakent.blogspot.co.uk/
Sylvia contributes to national, regional magazines and on-line journals. Following her Freelance Writer of the Year award for Writing Magazine, she began work on FOLKLORE OF ESSEX which contributed to Channel 5’s film COUNTY SECRETS. Sylvia’s book THE WOMAN WRITER, published by the History Press is sold @ the British Library. This history of the Society of Women Writers & Journalists dates from 1894 and includes pioneers who made their mark in journalism, literature & poetry. Sylvia celebrates the centenary of Joyce Grenfell, a former SWWJ president. A chapter is dedicated to Joyce who meanders throughout the book which was reviewed in The Times, other dailies & YouTube. Sylvia is SWWJ’s Archivist. She work with several publishers including on-line specialists.Ebook titles are BRENTWOOD: HISTORIC TOWN & ST MARY MAGDALEN: BILLERICAY, both downloadable via Kindle. later books are kindlised. 2,000 articles are linked to Facebook,Twitter @sylviaakent & Suite 101. Film/audio clips now added.
Sylvia’s 10th book Barking & Dagenham From Old Photographs is selling well.
Sylvia’s Blog is currently 170.000 page views.
