Tom is a screenwriter and novelist.
Tom has two new feature screenplays, 9 x 9 and Refugee. His adaptation of his novel, Separation for Beginners, has been commissioned by Jason Newmark at Newscope.
Tom’s debut literary novel, The Spider Truces was a Financial Times Book of the Year, shortlisted for the Writer’s Guild of Great Britain Award and the Waverton Good Read Award and longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize. It was reviewed as “a fierce, humane and hazily poetic work” by The Guardian and as “a beautiful debut” by The Financial Times. Tom’s second novel set in New York, Men Like Air was selected by WH Smiths Fresh Talent, and reviewed as “Funny and refreshingly complex” by Elle magazine, “Beautiful, witty and sharp, a contender for book of the year” by Bookmunch and “The ultimate love letter to New York, one of the books of 2016” by The Last Word. Tom writes comic fiction under the pseudonym Joe Portman. Separation for Beginners was published in 2022 to critical acclaim (“Sharp-witted, self-deprecating, heart-warming and honest, had me laughing from start to finish” – Daily Mail, Fiction Books of the Year). A second Joe Portman novel, A&E will be published in the spring of 2026.
Tom Connolly is represented by Frances Arnold