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Joe Portman is the pen name for Tom Connolly, an award-winning writer of literary fiction and non-fiction. SEPARATION FOR BEGINNERS is the first in a series of up-lit commercial novels.
Tom Connolly grew up in rural Kent, the youngest of four sons, and balanced his loathing of school with a love of sport. An apprenticeship as a tea boy in the camera department led to a career in film production, and he went on to direct award-winning short films for Channel 4 and the BBC and music videos and commercials shot around the globe in a twenty-year career.
In the twenty-first year, he realised that long days on film sets were not conducive to windsurfing and beach life with the family, he quit filmmaking and, on discovering that Tom Wolfe wrote 135 words per day, became an author. He lives with his family in Sussex where he writes, takes photographs, windsurfs, is an Arsenal season ticket holder and fan of Eastbourne Town FC.
His first novel, THE SPIDER TRUCES (a Financial Times Book of the Year), was shortlisted for the Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award and longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize, reviewed by The Guardian as a “magical coming-of-age novel... fierce, humane and hazily poetic” and by Meera Syal as “lyrical, warm and moving, reminiscent of Laurie Lee.” His critically-acclaimed second novel, MEN LIKE AIR, was described by Evie Wyld as “an epic love letter to New York City, bold, absorbing and very funny” and by Elle magazine as “funny and refreshingly complex.”
His recent books include the photographic book, FAIR GAME, revealing the beautiful truth behind grassroots football. He is also the ghost-writer of BLOODY MINDED, the autobiography of professional cyclist Alex Dowsett, which tells the extraordinary story of how Dowsett succeeded despite being the world's only elite athlete with haemophilia A.
Tom has written short stories and articles for Esquire, The Observer, The Independent on Sunday, The Guardian and BBC Radio 4.
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