Tom Newlands: 'A sense of place is really crucial. I wanted to write a story about the kind of small post-industrial towns and villages I knew growing up.'
BY Katie Smart
6th Sep 2022
Tom Newlands was awarded a free five-day novel-writing course place as part of our Breakthrough Writers’ Programme for under-represented writers in 2021. It was via the course that he met his C&W literary agent Sophie Lambert. His debut coming-of-age novel Only Here, Only Now is out now with Phoenix (Orion)!
We caught up with Tom to find out more about his time studying with us, how he knew Sophie was the right literary agent for his work and the inspiration behind his Scottish-set debut novel…
You were awarded a place on our five-day Breakthrough Novel-Writing course for Writers with Low Income in 2021. How did your time studying with us impact your approach to writing?
The course was huge for me in a lot of ways. I think the intensity of it was one of the most useful things; working on my writing and exchanging ideas with other writers for five consecutive days was really rewarding – it improved my work ethic! We worked a lot on pitching and approaching agents, and since my novel wasn’t finished at that point it allowed me to think about what the core of it was about, and the direction I wanted it to go in. Reading the other writers work was brilliant, and it was a great motivation to be around so many people at a similar stage.
What tips would you like to give the budding writers who are thinking of applying to our Breakthrough Writers’ Programme or a similar opportunity?
Go for it – it’s great fun and whatever stage you are at it’s a good way to test your ideas and to improve your instincts, both as a reader and a writer. The tutors we had were amazing – we had so many stimulating discussions and it was great to be able to ask established authors about their own writing journeys. The staff who run the courses are also incredibly helpful and lovely!!
Many of our students find lifelong writing friends on our courses. Are you still in touch with anyone you met during the course?
Yes! We have a WhatsApp group and we follow each others progress on social media. A lot of the suggestions I got on the extract I shared during the course really helped me in the redrafting process and benefitted the finished manuscript.
It was through the course that you met your literary agent, Sophie Lambert from C&W. How did you know that you’d found the right agent to represent your work?
I was very lucky to be paired with Sophie for feedback on my work. She read the first chapter of my novel and sent me a really lovely email, I think she said she liked, ‘the rawness, the poignancy and the humour.’ I hadn’t spent much time considering how I might describe my own writing, but when I saw those words they struck me as a really perfect summation of what I was aiming for. I sent her the finished novel a few months later and our discussions then just confirmed that she really understood the book and the characters. I was over the moon to sign with her – I never dreamed I’d have an agent of her knowledge and experience.
Your debut novel Only Here, Only Now is out now with Phoenix (Orion). The coming-of-age story, set in the 1990’s, follows teenager Cora, who has ADHD and lives in Scotland. Can you tell us a bit more about the novel and the inspiration behind it?
Cora lives alone with her mother on a small seaside council estate in Fife, and they are both struggling in their own ways – then her mother brings home a new boyfriend and everything changes. The book follows Cora for four years as she tries to make sense of her upbringing and take control of her life, while also attempting to bond with this man. The book is about a lot of different things: grief, belonging, makeshift families, female friendship, disability. Some of the subject matter is difficult, but it’s hopefully very funny too.
I wrote Only Here, Only Now because I rarely found what I was looking for in other British books. Characters from novels of middle-class life are usually afforded a deep attachment to their belongings and surroundings, relationships based on warmth and humour, the freedom to talk about subjects other than work or money. I saw no reason why – as in life – it shouldn’t be the same for a working-class girl who has no carpet in her bedroom, or a mother in a wheelchair, or a petty criminal.
The novel travels through the landscapes of Muircross, Abbotscraig and Glasgow – as a Scottish writer how much of a crucial role did setting play for you when you wrote the novel?
A sense of place is really crucial. I wanted to write a story about the kind of small post-industrial towns and villages I knew growing up. The early nineties was a depressing time in Central Scotland; heavy industry there had been wound down over the preceding decades and a generation of kids were growing up surrounded by hopelessness. I wanted a protagonist in the middle of all that who saw things differently and held on to some sort of dream, however modest. I wrote the novel in lockdown in London, so writing it was a kind of escape too.
What books have you enjoyed reading recently?
Large Animals, a short story collection by Jess Arndt. It blew me away.
Finally, what’s next for your writing journey?
The second novel is well under way!
Only Here, Only Now is out now!
Learn more about the free opportunities available through our Breakthrough Writer’s Programme for under-represented writers.