about the author

Andrew Foley-Jones is the writer of three novels and a collection of short stories.

The first novel, Seductive Amoebae, was published in 2009 by Billboard, an imprint of the Coast & Country publishing house following a series of short stories which the writer produced for the magazine. The book soon developed a cult status after reaching number 3 in the autonomy chart produced by Harper Collins for new manuscripts.

Reviews quickly flooded the site; “A fiercely original piece of work…Fantastic pros and a truly psychedelic experience… Bizarre but brilliant… Superbly written… Very unusual but highly exciting style… David Cronenberg meets Bret Easton Ellis… A real head trip… One of the best opening paragraphs that I have ever read… The pros itself – at times poetic, at times scathing and Palahniuk-like… Refreshingly original… he reminds me of a young Bret Easton Ellis… The humour is subtle and scathing… This is great great writing”.

The second book, Starbucks Ate My Lobster is a novella written over a four week period in April 2013. It is unusual not only for the speed in which it was written but also by the fact that it is a story comprised of tweets both by the writer himself but also by tweets from the people he is following. The book was written unexpectedly whilst the follow up novel to Seductive Amoebae was being edited with the writer remarking; “I found I was being distracted by Twitter and Facebook etc and suddenly found what I was writing and what I was tweeting were merging into one. I need to make sure it doesn’t distract me from what I need to do (finish the second book) but it is a welcome distraction and does show the way in which social media is changing the way we communicate with each other and the world at large”.

This short book has received excellent reviews with comments including “…A quirky little book… I found this book brilliant… The fallacy and inadequacies of technology and its interaction with the human consciousness is explored and rudely exposed… A mirror has been placed before the face of society and the reflection is one which will disturb the mindful reader… Fantastic, brilliant, vacuous but with huge depth because of it… The reader is transported into a murky, meandering yet mesmerising world”.

In June 2016 there was departure from fiction when the writer wrote a journal following his journey around France watching the Welsh national team at the Euros in 2016. Published by Don Hales Coast & Country publishing house, this started out as a simple story of  two friends who journeyed to watch their team, simply expecting some fun and the once in a generation opportunity to watch their nation at a sporting event but incredibly ended up against all odds, watching their team reach the semi finals.

However, the story extends beyond football; a commentary if you like upon modern society, social media, political upheaval back in the UK and includes some hilarious anecdotes – the writer somehow managing to play as an imposter at a Mickey Thomas testimonial, a chance encounter with a Russian supermodel that was beamed live on national TV, eating Turkey sandwiches with an international rockstar, an Indian yogi obsessed with Welsh midfielder Joe Allen, a talking cat found on a French train named after the unlikely hero of the tournament Hal Robson-Kanu (where the name of the book comes from), all against the backdrop of often comical attempts to navigate Wacky Races style around strike ridden France.

Since this publication there have been a number of short stories written and published in various magazines and websites including Cultured Vultures, Tortoise and Concept for Living. These and a number of other short stories have during Covid 19 Lockdown, been put into a collection now to be published by Red Dog Promotions.