- Andrew Crofts (author)
Infobox Person |
image_size = 150px
name = Andrew Crofts
caption = Andrew Crofts
birth_date = 1953
occupation = AuthorAndrew Crofts (born 1953) based in England, is a known name in the world of
ghostwriting . Many of hissubjects have beeninternational and have topped thebestseller charts of UK and other countries. Because of the secrecy surrounding the business of ghostwriting it is never known exactly how manybooks that have been credited to other people were actually written by him, but in recent years more and morepublishers seem to be insisting on placing his name alongside the "author's" in order to boost sales.Early days and development of his career
Born in 1953 in England, Crofts was educated at
Lancing College , a school renowned for producing writers, (Evelyn Waugh ,Tom Sharpe ,Jan Morris , David Hare,Christopher Hampton andTim Rice ).Moving to London at 17, Crofts took a variety of jobs as he struggled to establish himself as a
freelance writer, (including astint running amodelling agency in London'sBond Street ), while submitting work to every kind ofmagazine andpublisher . For a number of years he worked as a freelancebusiness journalist and then atravel writer , spending a great deal of his time in theFar East , theCaribbean and the South Pacific. His career as a ghostwriter seems to have started seriously in the early 1990s.In 2006 his name was openly linked to a book by the popular winner of Big Brother,
Pete Bennett , who wrote movingly about his childhood and the problems of havingTourette syndrome in "Pete-My Story" (Harper Collins ).Known ghosted titles
* Sold by
Zana Muhsen , (Time Warner ), about two sisters sold as child brides in the Yemen and was France's best selling non-fiction book of the year at the time of publication, with close to four million copies now sold world-wide;
* The Little Prisoner by Jane Elliott, (Harper Collins ), a tale of child abuse which went to number one in the Sunday Times charts both as a hardback and a paperback, selling half a million copies within a few months;
* Betrayed by Lyndsey Harris, (Arrow), the story of a little girl who was cruelly framed forcrime s she never committed by the person she trusted the most. winner of the Richard and Judy "True" competition.
* The Kid by Kevin Lewis (Penguin), (topped "The Sunday Times " charts),
* Just a Boy by Richard McCann (Ebury), (topped "The Sunday Times " charts),
* For a House Made of Stone for Gina French (Vision), a girl who started life in thePhilippine mountains and ended up on trial for murder in England via the bars ofManila and ex-pat life inBrunei ,
* Heroine of the Desert by Donya Al-Nahi, (Metro), who fought to reunite mothers with their children in international tug-of-love wars
* Through Gypsy Eyes for Kathy Etchingham, (Gollancz), who wasJimi Hendrix 's girlfriend,
* Kathy and Me for actress and soap starGillian Taylforth ,
* Please Daddy No for Stuart Howarth, (Harper Collins ),
* My Family is All I Have for Helen-Alice Dear (Ebury Press), an English woman who was trapped behind theIron Curtain for 50 years.
* A promise to Nadia byZana Muhsen , the follow-up of Sold, in which is told how Zana struggles to get her sister free.Authored books
* The Little Hero (Vision), which tells the story of Iqbal Masih, a child
slave who escaped and became a campaigner for the abolition ofbonded labour inPakistan before beingassassinated at the age of 13
* Maisie's Amazing Maids (Stratus) - a light heartednovel about a ghostwriter,
* The Freelance Writer's Handbook, (Piatkus Books)
*Ghostwriting (A&C Black).Controversy
Pete caused some
controversy at the time of publication by cheerfully admitting to a "Guardian"journalist that he hadn’t even read the book he was supposed to have written. Rumours have circulated about othercontroversial titles and how much or little in-put Crofts might have had in their creation.See also
*
Authors
*Writers
*List of English novelists External links
* [http://www.andrewcrofts.com The author’s official homepage]
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