It’s officially our favourite time of the year, autumn.
Why, might you ask? Well, there’s a certain romance about fall. The leaves changing colour to beautiful orange and yellow hues, curling up with a hot chocolate, lighting our favourite candles and enjoying hearty stews and long conversations with loved ones. It’s also the perfect excuse to cosy up in a warm blanket and get lost in a great work of fiction.
Here at YCB, we’re a team of bookworms, which won’t come as a big surprise given the nature of our work. We love to read and we love to write. One book that’s caught our attention recently is Tom Featherstone’s debut novel ‘I AM TOM’.
Exploring the up’s and downs of married life, I AM TOM provides a male perspective on the topic of marriage. A subject, which, let’s face it, is rarely talked about by men. Did you know, 42% of marriages end in divorce…? It’s a staggering statistic and one we might well be aware of, but it’s the process of healing and self-discovery that follows a break-up that isn’t so talked about by men. Until now.
This true to life fiction shares Tom’s personal journey of rediscovery after he is unceremoniously dumped by his wife and being forced to deal with losing his children to a different country. Packed with humour, sadness, and reflection, Tom’s honesty is admirable and the novel itself gripping. If you’ve ever been through a breakup, this tale is sure to resonate with you as it navigates through the emotions and desperate need to understand what went wrong.
We were lucky enough to catch up with Tom Featherstone, author of I AM TOM for a quick-fire question round…
Name:
Tom. D. Featherstone
Age:
50
Coffee or tea?
Both
What was your line of work before writing the book?
Advertising
Why is your book a must-read?
42% of marriages fail in the UK causing untold misery to couples and their children and families, impacting livelihoods, careers and mental health. The statistic of 42% is widely known, yet ignored as thousands of couples get married without due consideration and existing in unhappy and failing marriages without the tools to navigate to the happy ending everyone deserves.
Your book, I AM TOM, is receiving a lot of attention and it’s a new subject not previously written about. What are your thoughts about the book now?
The most staggering, humbling and unforeseen outcome to the book has been the response from women who have widely praised its honesty from a male perspective. While is started as a cathartic experience for myself, it seems to have taken on a life of its own and dare I say an importance in getting people of all marital statuses talking.
Do you think of your book as a work for men?
I used to! But now it seems to be relevant to both genders and all marital situations.
Tell us about Tom’s character? Who is he?
Tom is everyman. He is you or me and anyone going through the ups and downs of married life thinking all is not perfect, but that’s married life, right? Then he is forced to not only face up to the sudden end of his own marriage and ask himself the questions he should have asked himself before? Who is he? What is important to him? Did he marry the right person? Could he ever marry again and if he did, what would be different and why?
How long have you been working on this book?
The initial draft took only a few months when it was purely an outpouring of grief and introspection. Over the subsequent year it grew to become a more fictional and lighter work, allowing readers to experience both the light and dark of Tom’s journey.
How did your work evolve over time?
From a cathartic exercise to a work of true to life fiction.
Have you worried about potential backlash to the book?
A little. When close family and friends have read Tom, I have been nervous and at times wondered – what have I done here?! But when even my father described it as “brilliant” I realised that all of us, behind the facades and disguises that society somehow encourages us to wear, we are all human.
As an author, where do you find inspiration?
I have informally discussed divorce with more people than I care to remember over recent years – everyone has their own story and perspective. I also work in advertising and am always looking for the truths, wrinkles and insights into humanity.
Have you written any previous work? And if so…
I have written one other unpublished (I never tried) novel about a well-meaning anti-hero and professional, underground BackGammon player who always got himself into scrapes – it’s called “Hardy goes to Monty Carlo.”
Has fiction always been your genre?
Having been inspired Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom in the early Nineties, I spent the subsequent decades reading non-fiction but my greatest inspiration as a writer has long been a book called McCarthy’s Bar, by Pete McCarthy – a travelogue and journey of self-discovery around Ireland that is pure genius. I read some “divorce fiction” as research, but in the end decided to cut my own cloth.
Where did you spend most of your time writing the book?
It’s difficult to remember, I was in a dark place for much of it. But little more glamorous than on my laptop at home.
How are you handling the attention and the pressures of having a big book based on yourself and your own difficult experiences?
It is such an honour to be published and say “I did that!” – it’s an incredible feeling. Surely the best books are those that are honest, and in that I have no regrets – bring it on!
Do you have any new projects on the horizon?
I am working on the sequel – Tom Actually – where Tom builds on his learnings from the first year of his divorce and embarks on a fraught journey of finding love and discovers how difficult that is when so many people have so many deep scars.
A book that will well and truly have you laughing one minute, and deeply reflecting on your own life the next, I AM TOM deserves to be your next read this autumn. Whether you’re male or female, there’s a story we can all relate to here when it comes to relationships and navigating that raw emotion and feelings of rejection.
A fantastic read that we couldn’t put down (make sure you clear your evening when you pick this up!), we can’t wait to find out what might happen next. We’ll just have to wait for that sequel!
Pick up your copy here, happy reading.
I AM TOM is published by Books with Influence (BKWI).
