Andrew White (born 22 February 1974,

Doncaster Doncaster ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don, it is the administrative centre of the City of Doncaster metropolitan borough, and is the second largest se ...

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...

) is a writer, filmmaker and broadcaster. He is known for his mellow and distinctive Doncaster-area accent and his friendly, passionate presenting style. He is most associated with the multimedia brand Walks Around Britain for which he is the senior editor and the presenter/producer of the associated

TV series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platf ...

. In February 2022, he released his first novel "A New World"; the first story in ''The Walker Mysteries'', a series he created.

Early life and education

White was brought up in the

Armthorpe Armthorpe is a large suburban village and civil parish in the City of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. Historically within the West Riding of Yorkshire, it had a population of 12,630, increasing to 14,457 at the 2011 Census. History Et ...

area of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, and attended Shaw Wood Infants and Junior School in the village and then Armthorpe Comprehensive School. In the

Sixth Form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...

at Armthorpe Comprehensive School, White made television programmes such as game shows in the

Common room A common room is a type of shared lounge, most often found in halls of residence or dormitories, at (for example) universities, colleges, military bases, hospitals, rest homes, hostels, and even minimum-security prisons. They are generall ...

and then edited them together with graphics from his

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

computer. These programmes gained him an unconditional offer to join the Electronic Media Video Production course at Wolverhampton Polytechnic in 1992. He graduated in 1994 from the

University of Wolverhampton The University of Wolverhampton is a public university in Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, England, located on four campuses across the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, Shropshire and Staffordshire. Originally founded in 1827 as the Wolverham ...

as the polytechnic had since converted to a university.

Career

After leaving university, White freelanced for several broadcasters before moving to

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

to work at the new Orbit Satellite Television network at the Sapienza Network Center in the Tor Sapienza area of

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. Upon returning to the UK, he studied at the now closed Northern Media School – a part of

Sheffield Hallam University Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The university is based on two sites; the City Campus is located in the city centre near Sheffield station, Sheffield railway station, whil ...

, and then returned to his home town of Doncaster to set up his own production company Nova Productions. With his passion for transport, White was interested in making programmes about railways, buses, trams and trolleybuses, and joined with his lifelong friend Gareth Atherton to release some programme on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

video cassette. The first release was in 1997 – ''Buses of the South Yorkshire PTE : 1974–1986'' – and was produced using archive

Super 8 Super 8 or Super Eight may refer to: Film * Super 8 film, a motion picture film format released in 1965 * Super 8 film camera, a motion picture camera used to film Super 8mm motion picture format * ''Super 8'' (2011 film), a science-fiction f ...

film telecined and edited into a 60-minute documentary, with authentic vehicle sounds painstakingly dubbed onto the previously silent cine film. White and Atherton went on to produce over 50 transport programme which were released on VHS and later

DVD-Video DVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on DVDs. DVD-Video was the dominant consumer home video format in most of the world in the 2000s. As of 2024, it competes with the high-definition Blu-ray Disc, while both rece ...

until 2005 as Atherton had changed jobs and moved to Sheffield. White changed from direct sales of programmes on DVD to making transport programmes for other production companies to release and sell on their video label. This continued until 2008 when retailers which sold these DVDs like Woolworths collapsed and others like WH Smiths stopped selling DVDs in their stores. The commissions for these programmes began to dry up and White decided he needed to change track. Knowing that something was changing, White registered the domain name www.walksaroundbritain.co.uk in April 2006 with the intend on doing something about his other passion of walking. He ideas grew whilst watching the Wainwright Walks series on

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

in 2007, presented by

Julia Bradbury Julia Michele Bradbury (born 24 July 1970) is an English journalist and television presenter, employed by the BBC and ITV, specialising in documentaries and consumer affairs. She is best known for presenting a series of outdoor walking progr ...

. With his first child at the age of four at the time, he decided to build a website featuring much more accessible walks than

Alfred Wainwright Alfred Wainwright Order of the British Empire, MBE (17 January 1907 – 20 January 1991), who preferred to be known as A. Wainwright or A.W., was a British fellwalking, fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume ''Pictorial ...

promoted in his guide books. He launched the Walks Around Britain website in 2009, which became popular by focusing on walks between 2 – 8 miles and on walks with stories rather than always having the best views. White launched the ''Walks Around Britain'' podcast in 2012 and in January 2016 the first edition of Walks Around Britain was broadcast – with White presenting and producing the series.

Writing

White's first professional writing feature was in Lakeland Walker magazine, quickly followed by

Countryfile ''Countryfile'' is a British television programme which airs weekly on BBC One and reports on rural, agricultural, and environmental issues. The programme is currently presented by John Craven, Adam Henson, Matt Baker, Tom Heap, Ellie Har ...

. He regularly writes for magazines such as

Walk Walking (also known as ambulation) is one of the main gaits of terrestrial locomotion among legged animals. Walking is typically slower than running and other gaits. Walking is defined as an "inverted pendulum" gait in which the body vaults over ...

Coast A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...

RAIL Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Railway track or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' (1967 fil ...

, BBC Sky at Night, Your Dog, Dogs Today amongst others. White was commissioned by AA Publishing to update some of the walks in their book ''50 Walks in the Yorkshire Dales'' in 2013 and in the same year they commissioned him to write a completely new guide book for him home county of Yorkshire. The 90,000 word book was released in 2014 and was noted for being one of the few guide books to cover the whole of the county of Yorkshire – not just the popular places. He was commissioned to update the ''AA Guide to Yorkshire'' in 2015 which was published in 2016, and again in 2017 which was published in 2018.

Radio

White is a regular guest on

BBC Local Radio BBC Local Radio (also referred to as Local BBC Radio) is the BBC's local and regional radio division for England and the Channel Islands, consisting of 39 stations. As of December 2024, the network broadcasts to a combined audience of 7.1 mil ...

stations, appearing mostly on BBC Radio Sheffield,

BBC Radio Humberside BBC Radio Humberside is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving the former county of Humberside which includes the unitary authorities of England, unitary authorities of East Riding of Yorkshire, Kingston upon Hull, North Lincolns ...

BBC Radio Leeds BBC Radio Leeds is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of West Yorkshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at St Peter's Square in Leeds. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audienc ...

BBC Radio Lincolnshire BBC Radio Lincolnshire is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving the county of Lincolnshire. It broadcasts on frequency modulation, FM, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios near Newport Ar ...

BBC Radio York BBC Radio York is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of North Yorkshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios in the Bootham area of York. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience ...

and

BBC Radio Manchester BBC Radio Manchester is the BBC's local radio station serving Greater Manchester. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at MediaCityUK in Salford Quays. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of ...

mainly talking about walking and the great outdoors. Because of his freelance writing on railway topics,

BBC Radio Lancashire BBC Radio Lancashire is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Lancashire. Originally launched as BBC Radio Blackburn, in 1981 it expanded to cover the whole county and was renamed BBC Radio Lancashire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB ...

and

BBC Hereford & Worcester BBC Hereford & Worcester is the BBC's local radio station serving the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire, which were one county from 1974 to 1998. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and online via BBC Sounds from studios on Hylt ...

often invite White to talk about transport issues, as does on television on the

BBC News Channel The BBC News channel is a British free-to-air public broadcast television news channel owned and operated by the BBC. The channel is based at and broadcasts from Broadcasting House in the West End of London from which it is anchored during ...

. He has also been a regular panellist on BBC Radio Sheffield's Saturday afternoon panel show ''Live-ish'' hosted by

Bernie Clifton Bernie Clifton (born Bernard M. Quinn, 30 April 1936) is a British comedian and entertainer, known for his work with his orange ostrich puppet costume Oswald the Ostrich. Early life Clifton was born on 30 April 1936 in St Helens, Lancashire, wh ...

. In 2018, White co-produced a documentary for

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...

about the 60th anniversary of the children's TV programme

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC ...

. The 60 minute programme was broadcast on Tuesday 16 October 2018 – the actual day of the 60th anniversary – and was a Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 2.

Television

White's first appearance on television was as a contestant on the

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

Saturday early-evening game show ''First Class'', in which the team from Armthorpe Comprehensive School lost against a team from Montagu School in Kettering. He presented and produced the eponymously named one-off programme ''East Yorkshire Walks with Andrew White'' in 2015, which was commissioned by the local TV channel

Estuary TV Estuary TV was a local television station based in the United Kingdom. Coverage Estuary TV was the UK's longest running local television station at the time of its closure. It reached approximately 140,000 homes in North and North East Linco ...

. The programme was intended to be a pilot for a possible series, but Estuary TV were not able to raise the necessary sponsorship to make it happen. The two walks filmed for the programme were subsequently used in the first and second series of Walks Around Britain. White used the concepts behind ''East Yorkshire Walks with Andrew White'' to format a new TV series based on his Walks Around Britain website, and the first episode of the Walks Around Britain TV series was broadcast on 22 January 2016 on Community Channel. He is currently the lead presenter and presents at least one walk in every episode. White insists on walking every one of the routes in the TV series, so he can write the scripts for the voice-overs, and once stated he walks around 2,000 miles a year. In March 2020, White's company Nova Productions was commissioned by

Together TV Together TV (formerly The Community Channel) is a British free-to-air television channel owned by The Community Channel, a community benefit society. The channel targets a women's audience aged 40 to 60, with programming related to health an ...

to produce a spin-off series dedicated to Yorkshire, Walks Around Yorkshire, with White again presenting and producing the series. Delays caused by the worldwide outbreak of

Covid-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

meant the series has yet to enter production.

The Walker Mysteries

In July 2021, White announced on his Twitter account he had been working on a new mystery crime drama project, called The Walker Mysteries, based around a lead character of DCI Charlotte Walker, and her

border collie The Border Collie is a British list of dog breeds, breed of herding dog of the collie type of medium size. It originates in the region of the Anglo-Scottish border, and descends from the traditional Sheep dog, sheepdogs once found all over the ...

dog Bronte. White posted on the Twitter thread it would be a feel-good crime series for television, in the same vein as

Death In Paradise ''Death in Paradise'' is a crime drama, crime television series created by Robert Thorogood, starring Ben Miller (Series 1–3), Kris Marshall (Series 3–6), Ardal O'Hanlon (Series 6–9), Ralf Little (Series 9–13) and Don Gilet (2024 Speci ...

. White tweeted in October 2021 he had completed the first episode of The Walker Mysteries, and was now in the process of writing the story as a novel. The book, "A New World", was released on White's 48th birthday and is the first in at least four books in the series White is committed to writing. White tweeted in January 2022 there could be the possibility of a full-cast audio drama version of "A New World". The second book, "Home To Roost", is due out in late 2022.

Personal Appearances

White makes many personal appearances at various events across the country. He was the cornerstone of the Explore Britain stage at the first ''Countryfile Live'' event in 2016, and again in 2017, and has given talks at the ''Caravan, Camping and Motorhome Show'' and the ''British Tourism and Travel Show'' over the years. He is a regular at literary festivals taking part in events ranging from workshops to walk and talk events. He also leads walks a walking festivals across the country too. He is involved in the ''Get Doncaster Moving'' campaign, and attends events in the borough to promote walking.

Ordnance Survey #GetOutside Champion

Because of his work in passionately encouraging more people to get out walking, White was chosen to be one of the 60

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

#GetOutside Champions for 2018/9. He continued to be a #GetOutside Champion for 2020 and 2021 through the various lock-downs in the UK, and has been selected to continue through 2022.

South Yorkshire Way

In 2014, White launched the South Yorkshire Way – two interlinked

long-distance footpath A long-distance trail (or long-distance footpath, track, way, greenway (landscape), greenway) is a longer recreational trail mainly through rural areas used for hiking, backpacking (wilderness), backpacking, cycling, equestrianism or cross-co ...

s in his home county of South Yorkshire. One of the routes – the Boundary Route – follows the border of the county and is 171 miles in length, whilst the Central Route is a 98 miles route through the middle of the county, taking in the four constituent conurbations of

Rotherham Rotherham ( ) is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies at the confluence of the River Rother, South Yorkshire, River Rother, from which the town gets its name, and the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don. It is the largest settlement ...

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 71,422 in 2021, while the wider boroug ...

and

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

. He devised the routes as a response to South Yorkshire often being overlooked for walking, and to celebrate 2014 being the 40th anniversary of the formation of the county of South Yorkshire. White has stated his aim is to get the routes fully waymarked and recognised on

maps.

Awards and honours

* MyOutdoors "Best Digital Media Production", 2016 and 2017

Books

*''The AA Guide to Yorkshire – first edition'', AA Publishing, 2014 *''50 Walks in the Yorkshire Dales'', AA Publishing, 2014 *''The AA Guide to Yorkshire – second edition'', AA Publishing, 2016 *''The AA Guide to Yorkshire – third edition'', AA Publishing, 2018 *''50 Walks in the Yorkshire Dales'', AA Publishing, 2019 *''A New World: The Walker Mysteries book 1'', Nova Books, 2022

Filmography

;Television

Personal life

White married Amanda Hugill on Friday 17 August 2001 at High Melton, South Yorkshire. They have two daughters, who both regularly appear on ''Walks Around Britain'' with their father. White's eldest daughter, Alannah, was a Doncaster Youth Councillor and a Member of the

UK Youth Parliament The UK Youth Parliament (UKYP) is a youth organisation in the United Kingdom, consisting of democratically elected members aged between 11 and 18. Formed in 2000, the parliament has 395 members, who are elected to represent the views of you ...

for Doncaster and spoke in the chamber of the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

. White's youngest daughter, Olivia, competes in dog agility with two of the families' six border collies, under the team name ''Livgility''. On 17 February 2024, White announced the couples' separation after 26 years together, and their intention to divorce. He is a supporter of

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system after winning the 202 ...

and

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

. White is

left-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to and causing it to be stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply l ...

and has

vitiligo Vitiligo (, ) is a chronic autoimmune disorder that causes patches of skin to lose pigment or color. The cause of vitiligo is unknown, but it may be related to immune system changes, genetic factors, stress, or sun exposure, and susceptibili ...

Neurodiversity

White was diagnosed with having

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and emotional dysregulation that are excessive and pervasive, impairing in multiple con ...

and has

dyslexia Dyslexia (), previously known as word blindness, is a learning disability that affects either reading or writing. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, wri ...

Neurological Disorders

On 31 October 2023, White suffered a

seizure A seizure is a sudden, brief disruption of brain activity caused by abnormal, excessive, or synchronous neuronal firing. Depending on the regions of the brain involved, seizures can lead to changes in movement, sensation, behavior, awareness, o ...

, and suffered another on 30 November 2023. He was diagnosed with

epilepsy Epilepsy is a group of Non-communicable disease, non-communicable Neurological disorder, neurological disorders characterized by a tendency for recurrent, unprovoked Seizure, seizures. A seizure is a sudden burst of abnormal electrical activit ...

Gender and Sexuality

White

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

as a

trans woman A trans woman or transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their ...

Trans Day of Visibility International Transgender Day of Visibility, often simply Trans Day of Visibility (often shortened online as TDOV), is an annual event dedicated to celebrating transgender people raising awareness of discrimination faced by transgender people, ...

- 31 March 2024. As part of his

gender expression Gender expression (or gender presentation) is a person's behavior, mannerisms, interests, and appearance that are associated with gender in a particular cultural context, typically understood in terms of masculinity and femininity. Gender expr ...

, White announced he was using the first name "Andi", although he has said he is happy to continue to use "Andrew". White has stated he is fine with the

pronouns In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun ( glossed ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not con ...

he, she or they, until he completes medical transitioning. He has spoken about having significant

gender dysphoria Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to inconsistency between their gender identitytheir personal sense of their own genderand their sex assigned at birth. The term replaced the previous diagnostic label of gender i ...

throughout his life White announced on

National Coming Out Day National Coming Out Day (NCOD) is an annual LGBT awareness day observed on October 11 to support anyone "coming out of the closet". First celebrated in the United States in 1988, the initial idea was grounded in the feminist and gay liberation s ...

that he was

pansexual Pansexuality is sexual, romantic, or emotional attraction towards people of all genders, or regardless of their sex or gender identity. Pansexual people may refer to themselves as gender-blind, asserting that gender and sex are not determ ...

and has stated that "it has always been inside that counts"

References

External links

Official Andrew White site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:White, Andrew 1974 births Living people Alumni of the University of Wolverhampton People from Armthorpe People from the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster Television personalities from South Yorkshire English television presenters Travel broadcasters 21st-century British travel writers English television producers Writers from South Yorkshire British male writers Male non-fiction writers English travel writers British rail transport writers English male novelists 21st-century English male writers 21st-century English novelists 21st-century English writers English crime fiction writers Walkers of the United Kingdom English transgender writers British transgender writers LGBTQ people from Yorkshire 21st-century English LGBTQ people English LGBTQ broadcasters Transgender pansexual people Queer novelists British pansexual people Pansexual writers English pansexual people Television presenters with disabilities English people with disabilities Writers with dyslexia People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder