William Andrews was born and raised during the forties and fifties on a mixed farm in Freetown, PEI. He left home young, shifted around a lot and tried a lot of things. He marched in regular peace time army, fished gill net on Lake Erie, sang gospel in Maritime penal institutions, carved wood in Japan and did a lot of labour type jobs in a lot of places. He was encouraged to write while at UPEI in 1970–71. He started writing in 1995. His first novel The Grand Change was chosen as one of Prince Edward Island's Library Fourteen Books, One Island reading campaign.