Tom Connolly is an acclaimed filmmaker and writer. He has directed award-winning short films for the cinema and for Channel 4 and the BBC. His short stories and radio plays have been broadcast on Radio 4. His story ‘The Man in the Lift’ was shortlisted for the Imison Award.
His first novel, The Spider Truces (a Financial Times Book of the Year), was shortlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Award, and longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize 2011. Visit The Spider Truces website.
His second novel, Men Like Air, was published in 2016.
Interviews and Features
‘We got it right. We’ve been good brothers’
Tom Connolly remembers his late brother, Pip, for the Guardian:
‘Something about the prospect of turning 50 in March this year had been niggling me for some time, despite the fact that I’ve never taken much notice of birthdays… I began to realise it was sadness at the fact that soon after my 50th birthday I would become older than my big brother; my beloved, late, big brother. And that felt like an abomination.’
Photos of NYC and a lead review in Tripfiction
‘There are just wonderful turns of phrase that capture the feel of the city and the nuances of everyday life, at which Tom Connolly excels. You can tell that he is not only an author, but also a film maker, his prose has a very visual quality to it.’
Tripfiction reviews Men Like Air and talks to Tom Connolly as he shares some of his photographs of New York City.
Food for Bookworms
‘I think I have always loved a book that makes me laugh out loud and yet feel deep, complex emotion ever since reading A Prayer for Owen Meany, and I had a desire to write something funny and poignant about people who are stimulated by the city they live in, moulded by it, but also left emotionally isolated by it, as that’s my experience of New York City.’
Tom shares insights about Men Like Air and New York City with Natalie from Food for Bookworms.
Bookish Ramblings
‘The appeal of writing fiction is discovering the individuality of one’s fictional characters, and for me Leo’s loneliness is not so much age- or gender-related so much as to do with a certain sort of urban solitude, and in particular the way that New York City can leave you feeling like you’re on the outside edge of the greatest party ever thrown.’
Tom talks about writing Men Like Air to Bookish Ramblings.
The Owl on the Bookshelf
‘Finn arrives in NYC with an older, wiser, more travelled girlfriend who has a list of fabulous places she intends to see and wonderful things she intends to do. Finn, on the other hand, has come to do one thing, beat the crap out of his older brother for abandoning him.’
Tom introduces the characters of Men Like Air and describes some of his (and their) favourite New York films for The Owl on the Bookshelf.
Tom Connolly's guest blog for David's Book World
‘My nineteen-year-old character, Finn, shares with thousands the experience of landing in New York City and feeling that anything is going to be possible in your life… all the characters in Men Like Air are at different stages of a love affair with the place… they are all transformed by New York City, for better or worse, in the lifetime of the book.’
Tom talks to David Hebblethwaite about his inspiration for setting Men Like Air in New York and shares some of his photos of the city in this guest blog for David’s Book World.
Tom Connolly's article in the Independent
‘There is a particular adventure in feeling that we have reached the edge of land, in the illusion that we have discovered uncharted territory, even when we do so close to home….’
Read Tom Connolly in the Independent on the Kent landscape that inspires his writing.
On Marsden Street featured in Esquire magazine
‘He watched two cherubic kids swagger down the street, clutching their T-shirts, their bony torsos glaring in the sun…’
Read Tom Connolly’s short story, On Marsden Street, featured in Esquire magazine.