A veteran ESL teacher working in sun-soaked destinations abroad, Tom Alan is the author of Hitting The Jackpot. A light-hearted and witty summer read, it follows a hapless English teacher attempting to keep his lottery winnings a secret from those around him. What We Reading sat down with Tom to talk about everything from his experiences teaching abroad, the influence they had on Hitting The Jackpot and even his skills as a pro Tennis player in the making!
Thanks for speaking with us, Tom! First off, tell us a bit about yourself and what led you to the world of writing.
I’m a primary-school teacher in ‘real’ life, have been since 1982, but I’ve always dabbled in writing as a hobby, mostly articles for magazines and (without success, yet) fiction for children. I’ve worked abroad (Kuwait, Japan and currently Spain) and it was the move to Spain in 2006 that gave me the nudge towards writing comedy.
It was a ‘British’ primary school teaching the UK National Curriculum, but the children were all Spanish. I had a class of 7-year-olds. What could possibly go wrong? It was such an obvious set-up for comedy: the children’s level of English was pretty rudimentary, and my skills in Spanish were even worse. So, it was a recipe for a lot of sweat-soaked misunderstandings and linguistic mayhem, both inside and outside the classroom.
The children were hugely enthusiastic so I often felt like John Cleese trying to control 26 little Manuels (and Manuelas). I sent a few articles to the Times Educational Supplement and ended up gathering them all together into a sort of ‘memoir’ (Zen Kyu Maestro: An English Teacher’s Spanish Adventure) which was published by Monday Books in 2013 using the pseudonym Jeremy Dean. While it didn’t sell very well it got great reviews, so I felt comedy could be my niche.
Talk to us about Hitting The Jackpot. It sounds like a feel-good bit of lighthearted escapism?
Absolutely. I actually wrote it when Spain went into Covid lockdown in March 2020. The Spanish lockdown was very severe, we could only leave the house for food shopping, the health centre or the pharmacy for the first eight weeks or so, there was no outdoor exercising allowed until later.
I was confined to barracks and in need of cheering up, so I decided to make a start on an idea I had for a comic novel about someone who wanted to keep a lottery win a secret. The idea came from my mum who used to do the football pools and was obsessive about ticking the ‘No Publicity’ box for fear of getting loads of begging letters if she won (she never did). It always intrigued me, these people who kept a big win a secret: didn’t they tell anyone at all? Did parents not tell their children? How would you make sure the kids didn’t spill the beans? It seemed a rich seam for a humorous novel.
Check Out Our Take On The Best Time For Writing
One of your characters, Jack, teaches English as a Second Language. Run us through how that came about as an occupation, and did you run into any challenges in writing that.
I initially considered the family idea with two primary-aged children, but I worried about whether I could make the children’s views and experiences entertaining for an adult readership. So I decided instead on a group of gig-economy millennials and Jack was the first character who popped into my mind. I knew I could write the ‘hapless English teacher meets hyper-keen foreign student’ scenario and make it funny, so Jack the ESL teacher seemed perfect for some equally hapless lottery ticket hiding.
I amalgamated all the students I’d taught in Spain into the character of María and the plot twists just poured out of my mind faster than I could write them down. It certainly kept me entertained during lockdown. I would like to emphasise that although Jack is obviously based on me, the ‘hapless’ parts of his character are pure fiction… ahem.
What is the number one goal you want the book to have with readers?
I’d like to provoke exactly the same feelings as I had when writing it – just a fun, entertaining, amusing, but also thought-provoking yarn to be enjoyed on the beach or by the pool. I set the action in a long, hot, Cricklewood summer to lean it towards the ‘summer-reading’ slot, but I’m sure you could enjoy it by a winter log fire as well.
What do you think makes you stand out as an author? Are you someone who throws themselves into the stories they write?
I’ve been surprised by the reviews I’ve had so far, especially the number of times people have described my books as ‘laugh-out-loud’. I don’t often laugh out loud when I read, some of Roddy Doyle’s books (Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, The Commitments etc) are the only ones I can remember that really achieved this with me. But, if that’s what people find, then I’m really flattered and pleased. I actually thought my writing was quite wry, smirk-inducing, and maybe a little giggle. But I’ll take ‘laugh-out-loud’.
I suppose the other thing that I’d like to think people would appreciate is my take on languages and how strange they are, especially English. I learned so much through my time attempting to teach it to 7-year-old Spaniards. They had so many questions that I had no replies to: Why do we order two chicken and chips, not two chickens? Why do we use the phrase meteoric rise when meteors actually come down? I began to see English in a new light having spent nearly 20 years teaching it to foreigners.
“I actually thought my writing was quite wry, smirk-inducing, and maybe a little giggle. But I’ll take ‘laugh-out-loud’.”
Talk to us about one of your biggest successes so far.
Having the TES accept my Spanish school articles was a bit of a coup, then finding a publisher for them when I’d expanded them into a book-length School memoir. Although it didn’t sell very well, the reviews were really positive: 4.5 stars average on Amazon.
Then, of course, when Bloodhound Books accepted Hitting the Jackpot I was delighted, especially as they didn’t want any structural changes, it pretty much went out exactly as I’d written it. I took that as a compliment.
If you could go back in time to one book you read for the first time, what would it be and why?
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold – John le Carré. Never have I been led by the nose so completely by a narrative, only to be left open-jawed as the story switched completely in the biggest, most audacious reveal of what was truly going on… Sheer genius.
I’ve read it a second time and was still shocked at how completely I had been led down the garden path only to belatedly be shown that nothing was as I’d been led to believe. Wonderful storytelling.
What do you think is the biggest obstacle facing independent and aspiring authors these days?
That’s a really difficult question. You see, writing, for me, is (and always has been) a hobby alongside the ‘day job’. I’ve never tried to ‘earn a living’ through writing. I’ve earned my living as a teacher and now I have a pension. So I write because I like writing. The same reason that I play tennis. Nobody will ever pay to see me play, but I play all the same.
The fact that I’m now earning more from writing is a bonus. So, I have great admiration for what I’d call ‘real’ writers: those who are trying to write ‘for a living’. I imagine simply earning enough money to survive as a writer must be one of the biggest obstacles. I wish them all a whole load of luck.
“I’ve never tried to ‘earn a living’ through writing. I’ve earned my living as a teacher and now I have a pension. So I write because I like writing.”
If you could go back in time and give your younger self one tip, what would it be?
Wow! These are super-tough questions. I’m tempted to say ‘Write more…’ but to be very honest, school was always quite a demanding job (which I enjoyed), and my wife and I travelled a lot during the holidays, I also played a lot of tennis (and squash), and we went to the cinema and theatre, and watched lots of people killing each other in loads of TV series – so, I guess my younger self might very well have ignored my advice to ‘Write more…’
More seriously, I think I’d advise my younger self to start learning Spanish at a much younger age. ‘Picking it up’, while already living in (a very Spanish part of) Spain, and teaching a class of non-English-speaking Spanish children at the same time, was quite a challenge.
And finally, what do you hope the future holds for you and your writing?
I’ve got a couple of children’s manuscripts on my hard-drive which I’d like to see published. I’m sending them out now and again, but the success of Jackpot has put them on the back-burner a little as I’ve got stuck into the promotional whirlpool.
I’m currently editing a speculative novel, something a bit darker than Jackpot. In the main though, I simply want to keep enjoying writing, because when I stop enjoying it, that’ll be when I’ll stop. Maybe then I’ll start taking my tennis more seriously…
Check out Hitting The Jackpot and follow Tom and his work on Twitter or at his website!
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
