Andy Reeley is a
Birmingham born and
Gloucestershire based
author whose most recent novel is "Dubai Dream".
External
Sources
Website re Dubai
DreamAndy Reeley was born in Birmingham England in 1955.
Consideration of a career in surveying and architecture was
abandoned when the length of time required to study was realised.
Several years at college and university seemed to a teenager like a
lifetime before he would be able to practice and thus earn some
money.
A review of the options took place and the lure of the
local College of Further Education proved too great. Unsure of what
career his future would hold he chose Business Studies and was
educated to National Diploma level before embarking on a career in
the then (1970's!) relatively new and exiting field of computers.
In the early days of Computers much time was spent filling in
crosswords in daily papers as the computer valves took about 30
minutes to warm up before any programs could be loaded. Small metal
boxes holding hundreds of small cards with oblong holes in would
arrive - these were the programs. Strips of white paper tape with
round holes in provided the data. It was not unknown on a Friday
evening shift to nip to the local pub as the computer could take
several hours on a simple data sort.
Life and career moved on
and Andy found myself in the position of managing the installation
of computer cabling in a fleet of Nuclear Power Stations. That was
a surprisingly interesting position, and the intricacies of
threading bundles of fibre optic cable through the bowels of a
Nuclear Power Station are almost worthy of a book of their own. And
as is often the case in large organisations, a company
reorganisations and a career change left Andy managing an eclectic
mix of Internet Access and Telecommunications Billing.
Travel
has become his passion, after all the world is such a big place and
there can be no substitute to actually going and looking for your
self. Travel programs do not show him how hot the sea is, or how
spicy the food, nor let him sample the heady scents of a fish
market on a hot Caribbean day. Andy decided that he had to get out
there and travel. In his travelling experience the hottest sea ever
he has swam in was the Persian Gulf in July, hotter than most
people have their bath water. And despite all the travelling Andy
considers the best Balti is probably to be found in Birmingham. He
also thinks that the world is so big that locations or countries
rarely should be visited twice. There is beauty and wonder all
around - As Andy says, 'go, explore and enjoy.'
On his travels
Andy prefers the beach to the city and, perhaps sadly, has yet to
taste breakfast at Tiffany’s or partake of a Sling in Singapore’s
Raffles. But then his memory is full of other exiting trips and
moments such as the wonderfully friendly people of Gambia and the
stunning beauty of the islands of the Indian Ocean. Travel.
In
the slow wind down after a particularly memorable Caribbean
holiday, Andy sat at his desk in front of his computer screen, and
realisation dawned that a telephone bill seemed little more than a
masterful blend of fact and fiction. In the early morning light of
that chilly Autumn's day a sip of coffee was taken and a decision
was made. Andy realised that he could write something more
interesting than a telephone bill report. Edward and Geraldine, he
decided, were about to meet the world.