Andrew Lawrence’s recent book, Bath – I Walked Every Street, became a local sensation and on 13th April Andrew Lawrence will lead a workshop with BRLSI’s regular Literature convenor Sue Boyle called ‘The Sense of Place’.
Andrew “Able” Lawrence worked all his life for the BBC, mostly on radio drama and music recording, but also helping make programmes about the history of Australia and American music. His work caused him to travel to a lot of areas and cities and this helped fuel his long existing interest in urban details and rural landscapes.
From childhood he regularly walked through urban environments and loved taking in the variety of sights visible. And it was after his retirement that he came up with the idea of walking every single street of Bath where he has lived for over two thirds of his life. And this in turn led to his recently published book “Bath – I Walked Every Street”.
He has for a long time been interested in writing and has been a member of several poetry groups and writers’ groups. He has often performed in public for them whether reading his own works or, for instance, leading the audience in singing World War One songs for a Bath Writers and Artists show. This was a significant writing group that he was a member of, and he frequently performed with them.
He was a long-time member of Walcot State Choir and travelled abroad with them many Ames. And he was also lead singer and harmonica player in several local blues bands. He focussed his attention onto his book over the last few years and it has been selling well since it was published in autumn 2023.
At Oldfield Park Bookshop the book has been No. 1 of their top twenty-five best-sellers for nearly three months. And he was interviewed by ITV re. this book and has also been mentioned in several local papers. He really enjoyed exploring the details of the city of Bath and even toys with the idea of doing a similar project in some of the nearby towns. But he also enjoys resting up a bit nowadays – so who knows!
Sue Boyle
To Book: https://www.brlsi.org/whatson/the-sense-of-place-workshop/
