Andrew Marr

Andrew Marr presents Start The Week and was the BBC's Political Editor until summer 2005.

Andrew was born in Glasgow in 1959 and educated in Scotland, and at Cambridge. Before joining the BBC as political editor in 2000 he was a political reporter, columnist and newspaper editor.

He joined The Scotsman in 1981 as a trainee and later became its parliamentary correspondent. He has also written for The Economist, The Observer and The Independent, where he was chief political commentator before becoming its editor. He now writes a weekly column for The Daily Telegraph. He has won several awards for his newspaper and television journalism, most recently a Bafta for Best TV Presenter.

Andrew has published three books about British politics. A fourth book, My Trade: A Short history of British Journalism, was published in September 2004. He is married and has three children. He lists his hobbies as reading, painting, cooking and remembering his children's names. He says "I like to paint, and to run, though rarely at the same time."