Letter to a Lucky Man

Based in the Northern Irish, County Antrim port town of Larne, Thomas Jobling is a retired businessman, an experienced yachtsman and nautical scribe turned novelist. His debut novel, Chasing Shadows was published in 2014, and achieved success with readers from within the nautical world of competitive sailing. His second novel, again with a strong maritime backdrop, Arthur's Dead, was a thrilling but tragic love story and received very positive reviews, from as far away as Australia via their leading yachting magazine Afloat. Prior to these works, Thomas had written a 'how-to' planning and management e-manual designed to assist with the organisation of sailing regattas and championship level events. Such was the popularly of The Big Event that it earned the badge of a 'best practice' document with both the Royal Yachting Association and the Irish Sailing Association. A subsequent publication, Champions & High Achievers, charts the 'great and the good' from the inception in 1950 of the East Antrim Boat Club, on Larne Lough, up to 2013. It can be found on the club's website at www.eabc.club. Having been born by the sea, boats and boating were destined to become companions of Thomas's and he continues to enjoy his passion for all things afloat. Going freelance in the early seventies, he covered the marine scene by reporting sail-boat events for the leading UK and Irish yachting magazines as well as writing weekly columns for his local papers. However, marriage and an expanding family demanded that he found 'real' employment! To back-up his scribing he found himself building glass-fibre yachts, leading on to involvement with the plastics distribution business before moving into the construction industry selling plastic building products. Several decades later he had risen to the level of national sales manager...He has competed at the highest level within the sport of sailboat racing. Currently he races a quarter-tonner type of yacht, but at a more leisurely pace. During this period he also found time to serve as his club's Commodore, and thereafter as President of the Irish GP14 Association while he and wife Jane raised their family of three; two boys and a girl.Having taken early retirement from business he quickly re-kindled and re-developed his writing craft within the world of creative writing.

"If you read Tom Jobling's latest novel on holiday you'll hope it rains every day. A Letter to a Lucky Man is not merely a deftly plotted read-at-one-sitting thriller, but a warm and human, rite of passage tale that charts the journey of a boy to mature adulthood as he grapples with the choices that could throw him off course. The humble and modest hero thinks himself lucky, but luck is a choice, and it's not easy to make the right choices, or even be honest, in a world where most get by taking the line of least resistance. Uplifting throughout." DAVE SELBY: Columnist, Practical Boat Owner; "From the crashing start, through upwind stretches and downwind easy times, Jobling's story of the three generational Cardinali family keeps us on our toes till the gentle end." BETTY ARMSTRONG, freelance maritime journalist & correspondent for afloat.ie; "Thomas Jobling uses his personal experiences and his knowledge of the seas and the dramatic headlands of Northern Ireland's Antrim coast to spin a fascinating tale, whereby a family man and leader of industry gets involved with some unsavoury individuals and ultimately becomes a police 'person of interest'." TONY KENNEDY, Chair of the John Hewitt Society