Andrew McCarthy

Twelve years of travel writing for National Geographic Traveler, where he was an editor at large, gave Andrew McCarthy a second career, and Brat: An '80s Story (2021) accounts for the first. Born in Westfield, New Jersey in 1962, he was studying theatre at NYU when he was cast in Class (1983); Pretty in Pink, St. Elmo's Fire and Weekend at Bernie's followed within six years. A 1985 New York magazine piece by David Blum coined the label Brat Pack, and the book is candid about how much McCarthy resented the tag and how heavily he drank underneath it. He entered a treatment programme in Minnesota in 1992 and has not had a drink since. He now directs television, including episodes of Orange Is the New Black and The Blacklist, and has written The Longest Way Home (2012) and Walking with Sam (2023), about walking the Camino de Santiago with his son.