Wordworthy

Andrew Mitchell, A Short Biography

Born in Shipley, West Yorkshire, Andrew Mitchell made a number of recordings with writers in the 1990s for BBC Radio 3 and 4, scripting, interviewing, editing and presenting. He also made recordings for Peterloo Poets and independent archives.

People Andrew Mitchell has worked with include: Christopher Reid, Andrew Motion, Sean O’Brien, U.A.Fanthorpe, Gary Geddes (Canada), Jon Silkin, Derick Thomson (Scotland) and Iain Crichton Smith. Andrew Mitchell’s Radio 3 feature, ‘The Island is Always with You’, was selected for ‘Pick of the Week’.

Some of his archive materials are now held in collections, including the National Libraries of Scotland and Canada along with the Harry Ransom Research Center, Austin, Texas and the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Leaving teaching, Andrew Mitchell began to write, and has so far completed a historical novel, Callum’s Kingdom set in 19th Century Scotland and Canada and a free verse masque on Shakespeare’s Dark Lady.

He has also published three long poem sequences.

• Saltaire (2002)
• Taking You Home (2006).
• Darwin, a Voyage of Ideas (2009)

The Darwin poems formed a multi-media presentation on the BBC Big Screen in Bradford, were read to the International Darwin Conference at the University of Bradford in September 2009.  They have now been selected for the V & A Museum Illustrated Book Collection.