Tom Bullough – författare

Tom Bullough's Konstantin is a mesmerising novel about how the imagination can inspire the individual to greatness.1867, Ryazan, a Russian city in winter. Ten-year-old Konstantin, deafened by scarlet fever, dreams of flight - escaping to Moscow, fleeing to the silent stars. And his daring visions, pregnant with humanity's future, will take him further than anyone could believe.Moving from wolf-infested forests to the brothels of Moscow, from village life to the wondrous Age of Steam, from appalling tragedy to the discovery of a great love, Konstantin tells the beguiling story of a man who imagined the unimaginable: turning the dream of space travel into a reality.As vivid and evocative as Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, Konstantin is a story of man, nature, and the limitless power of the imagination. Praise for Konstantin:'Convincing, lyrical. Bullough has set Konstantin squarely before us as a living, thinking, ingenious human being' John Banville'Konstantin is that rare creature, the practical dreamer, a hero at the dawn of modernity. Beautifully written . . . a real achievement' Andrew Miller, author of Pure'Enchanting, wonderfully eloquent. A very alluring read' Time OutTom Bullough was born in 1975 and is the author of two previous novels. He lives in Breconshire, in mid-Wales, with his wife and young son.

Tom Bullough's Konstantin is a mesmerising novel about how the imagination can inspire the individual to greatness.1867, Ryazan, a Russian city in winter. Ten-year-old Konstantin, deafened by scarlet fever, dreams of flight - escaping to Moscow, fleeing to the silent stars. And his daring visions, pregnant with humanity's future, will take him further than anyone could believe.Moving from wolf-infested forests to the brothels of Moscow, from village life to the wondrous Age of Steam, from appalling tragedy to the discovery of a great love, Konstantin tells the beguiling story of a man who imagined the unimaginable: turning the dream of space travel into a reality.As vivid and evocative as Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, Konstantin is a story of man, nature, and the limitless power of the imagination. Praise for Konstantin:'Convincing, lyrical. Bullough has set Konstantin squarely before us as a living, thinking, ingenious human being' John Banville'Konstantin is that rare creature, the practical dreamer, a hero at the dawn of modernity. Beautifully written . . . a real achievement' Andrew Miller, author of Pure'Enchanting, wonderfully eloquent. A very alluring read' Time OutTom Bullough was born in 1975 and is the author of two previous novels. He lives in Breconshire, in mid-Wales, with his wife and young son.

The stark beauty of the Welsh countryside is given powerful life in this sweeping tale of one family from World War II to the present day, for readers of Alice Munro, Kent Haruf, Bruce Chatwin, and Louise Erdrich.Addlands (i.e., headlands): the border of plough land which is ploughed last of all. The patriarch of Funnon Farm is Idris Hamer, stubborn, strong, a man of the plough and the prayer-sheet, haunted by his youth in the trenches of France. The son is Oliver, a junior boxing champion and hell-raising local legend who seems from birth inextricably rooted to his corner of Wales. Bridging these two men’s uneasy relationship is Etty, a woman born into a world unequipped to deal with her. Following the Hamer family for seventy years, this novel’s beauty is in its pure and moving prose, and its brilliant insight into a traditional way of life splintering in the face of inevitable change. Addlands is also a tale of blood feuds and momentous revelations, of the great dramas that simmer beneath the surface of the everyday. Through all the upheavals of the twentieth century, the only constant is the living presence of the land itself, a dazzling, harsh, and haunting terrain that Tom Bullough conjures with the skill and grace of a master. Advance praise for Addlands “This is the book we have been waiting for from Tom Bullough, a complete work of art, astonishingly beautiful, deeply moving, and gripping from first to last. Addlands appears to be a tale of the Welsh borders, told through the battles, loves, and losses of its Heathcliff hero, Oliver, but it is much more—the story of how the land made us all, and how the last century has changed us. Zola would have saluted it and pressed copies on his friends.”—Horatio Clare, winner of the Somerset Maugham Award “Tom Bullough’s story of one family’s struggle in a world of continuity and change is beautifully imagined and exquisitely told—passionate, lyrical, profound, sad, and sometimes, too, when you least expect it, very funny.”—Carys Davies, winner of the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award “Addlands is a gorgeous and painstaking evocation of the land and those who work it. Bullough’s writing is a joy—disciplined, observant, and musical, blissfully free of cliché.”—Andrew Miller, winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award“An absolutely splendid book . . . Bullough roots the reader in the Welsh landscape, which like all inhabited landscapes is a place in flux—he wants us to make it our home, to get a sense of its light and shadow and textures. Of this place he’s made a world that is rich and absorbing. Every time I’d pick up Addlands to read, I did so with relish—to return to these pages is to come back to terrain so lushly imagined that it feels luxurious to spend time there.”—John Darnielle, New York Times bestselling author of Wolf in White Van “Addlands is a mesmerisingly beautiful experience, a haunting fusion of person, place, and history. It is a really important contribution to the literature of the Welsh borders.”—Gerard Woodward“Marrow-deep in its connection to place yet global in its thematic exploration and significance, Addlands does what literature should unstintingly aspire to do: make individual lives the essential stuff of epic. In crystalline, perfect, and stunning prose, Tom Bullough sites, convincingly and movingly, the entire history of these islands in a small section of Radnorshire. It’s an astonishing work of words”—Niall GriffithsFrom the Hardcover edition.

Addlands is the moving and engrossing story of the Hamer family and their home, the Funnon Farm, deep in the hills of the Welsh borders.There is Idris, proud and insular, a man of the plough and the prayer sheet, haunted by the First World War. Then there is the boy Oliver, who grows to be a near mythic giant in the community, a fighter, a drinker, inescapably rooted in their hard, remote valley. And there is Etty, Oliver's mother, the centre of this close constellation, who navigates old ways and new technologies as she struggles to ensure her family's survival. From the ancient silence in the hills to the encroaching roar of modernity, spanning seventy years, Addlands tells of human and animal; it speaks of the land and lets the land speak for itself. It is as vast and complex as a symphony but as pure and moving as a solo voice in an empty church.

WALES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024WATERSTONES WELSH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023LONGLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2023From the author of Addlands, and featuring illustrations by Jackie Morris, an immersive and evocative non-fictional journey through Wales and a revelatory meditation on the nation's past, present and future.Sarn Helen - Helen's Causeway - is the old Roman Road that runs from the south of Wales to the north. As Tom walks the route, sometimes alone, sometimes in company, he describes the changing landscape around him and explores the political, cultural and mythical history of this country that has been so divided, by language and by geography. Running alongside this journey is the story of Tom's engagement with the issue of the climate crisis and its likely impact on the Welsh coastline. From one of Wales' most celebrated younger writers, Sarn Helen is at once a vivid and immersive portrait of a nation, and a resonant meditation upon the way in which we are shaped by place and in turn shape the places - potentially irrevocably.