Solent Ferries is contributed by husband & wife team Andrew & Donna Cooke. They are based on the beautiful Isle of Wight in England, U.K.
Andrew has grown up on the Isle of Wight and developed a far reaching love of ships and the sea from an early age. Specialist areas have always been Cruise Ships/Liners and Ferries with a wider interest in all shipping types from Sailing Ships, Coasters & Tugs to the largest Crude Oil Tanker or Container Ship.
A love of photography goes hand in hand with an interest such as shipping and as from the mid 1990s Andrew's photographic work began to appear in publications such as Swashway Ferry Newslink, Ships Monthly & British Ferry Scene (now Ferry & Cruise Review). In 1995 a fast growing secondary career in Cruise & Ferry writing flourished with quarterly news reports and articles/voyage reports being published in Swashway Ferry Newslink. In 1998 the ambition of compiling the Solent Ferry News for European Ferry Scene (now Ferry & Cruise Review) was realised and this is ongoing.
Photographs and articles regularly appear in Ships Monthly as well as other publications past & present including Ferry Compass, Ro-Pax Magazine and Ferries (all published in Germany).
During 2009 a new opportunity arose with the start of monthly "Newbuild of the Month" articles in SHIPPING TODAY & YESTERDAY MAGAZINE. These are ongoing, feature a variety of ship types and were supplemented as from 2010 by the monthly ferry news reports in the same magazine. Andrew's work also continues to appear elsewhere in books and magazines etc.