Why ‘Andrew Toynbee?’
Those who know me have often asked why I chose to publish as Andrew Toynbee.
My given name was already Andrew, although the only person outside of officialdom who ever used this name was my mother. Andy is my preferred form.
However, I thought that Andy looked rather informal on a book cover (no disrespect to Mr McNab here), so I turned my preference on its head and opted for Andrew. As for Toynbee… my familial surname is long and often mis-spelled so I began to search for a better one. In the years of writing to my then-girlfriend and now wife, I often shortened my long surname to just ‘B’. In fun it gained a couple of letters, becoming ‘Bee.’ However, when BBC reporter Polly Toynbee first appeared on the scene in 1988, I knew that Toynbee was the name I wanted to use. Shortly after, this book appeared before me at a book fair in 1989:
I still have the book, a first-edition paperback. 😀
PS – I changed to Toynbee because my own name is often mis-spelled. Toynbee, unfortunately, also creates frowns and hesitant typing. Still, too late now.
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