First and foremost, a massive thank you to the mighty Emily Kitchin, who is not only a brilliant editor, but also a master plotter, indefatigable great-idea generator and highly skilled de-italiciser. Thank you so much for everything, Emily – I owe you many, many drinks…
Big thanks also to: everyone at HQ, Kirsty McLachlan and all at DGA, Rachel Leyshon, Lucy Ivison, Anne-Sophie Jahn and Ersi Sotiropoulos. Thanks to my parents and my brother. Thanks to my friends, in particular the ones from whom I shamelessly borrowed names, traits, jokes or anecdotes to put in this book. Including but not limited to: Carolina Demopoulos, Harvey Horner, Jeremy Stubbings, Susan Simmonds, Daphne Koutsafti, Robin Pasricha, Rob Ellen, Chris Carroll and Neil Redford.
I wrote big chunks of All About Us at two fantastic writers’ residences in Greece – the House of Literature in Paros and the International Writers’ & Translators’ Centre of Rhodes. Thank you very much to everyone at both, and in particular to Eleftheria Binikou at the IWTCR.
And thank you to Charles Dickens for the loan of his story structure. Thanks, Charles.
Author Q&A with Tom Ellen
Can you tell us about your inspiration for writing All About Us?
I think everyone can relate to those ‘What if…’ moments in life – times you look back and wonder, ‘If I did such-and-such differently, what would my life look like now?’. That was the initial inspiration for All About Us – the concept of being able to actually revisit a few of those moments. If you could go back five, ten, fifteen years, what would you change – and why? Aside from its magical, time-travel elements, though, the book is also a romantic comedy at heart, and I’ve always loved romcoms, so ultimately I just wanted to write a funny, romantic book that encompassed lots of other themes I’m also interested in: family dynamics, grief, toxic masculinity. I should also mention that Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was a pretty major inspiration for All About Us, since I – ahem – ‘borrowed’ the basic time-hopping structure from that excellent novel!
Is there a character in the book you connected with most deeply?
Ben is probably the closest to me – in terms of both his good and bad points. Like him, I’m definitely prone to being a bit over-anxious and mawkish, but hopefully I share some of his more positive characteristics too! Aside from him, though, the character of Daphne is based on my girlfriend, and Ben’s best mate Harv is a kind of amalgam of lots of my closest friends, so I definitely connected to those two very deeply as well.
Do you have a favourite scene in the book – past, present or future?
I really enjoyed writing the early chapters when Ben wakes up to find himself back in the past for the first time. It was fun to channel that feeling of what-on-earth-is-happening-here craziness as he realises he has somehow jumped back fifteen years. Plus, that section is all set at the University of York – where I studied – so it was very nostalgic to write about drinking Snakebite Black in the college bar, playing Sardines in the campus maze and acting in (usually extremely poor quality) student plays – all things I genuinely did during my time there!
Some of the scenes between Ben and his mum are hugely emotional. How did it feel to write those?
I loved writing them. I hope they come across as moving and tender, but I also wanted them to be humorous, as I think Ben’s mum is one of the funniest characters in the book, and I really enjoyed writing her dialogue for that reason. Those scenes were also some of the most difficult to write, though, because it’s so tough to imagine how you’d feel if you’d lost someone you were so close to, and then you were miraculously given the chance the see them again one last time! I wanted Ben to be completely overwhelmed by this bittersweet sensation of seeing his beloved mum again, but also of being reminded how much he misses her now she’s gone.
The theme of toxic masculinity, and of how men don’t feel that it’s ‘manly’ to show their emotions, is a strong one in the book. Did you always set out to explore this?
Yes, absolutely. I’ve always been interested in that idea that ‘banter’ is basically how men communicate. I’m quite lucky in that I can actually talk to most of my male friends about that kind of stuff, but I think it’s still very tough for a lot of men, so I was interested to explore that. There’s a scene early on in the book where Ben’s chatting to Harv and unwittingly puts on a ‘comedy’ accent when he confesses to feeling depressed. That’s something I’ve definitely noticed in myself and my own friends: the idea of not wanting to dampen the mood, or of feeling awkward and embarrassed to admit that something’s wrong.
Can you tell us what your favourite Christmas films are? We certainly hope that Love Actually features!
Love Actually is indeed up there, but I’d say The Muppet Christmas Carol probably pips it to the post for me. A great film and arguably Michael Caine’s finest hour (don’t @ me). Home Alone is definitely in the mix, too. There is also a long-standing debate about whether or not Die Hard counts as a ‘Christmas film’ – and I’m very much of the opinion that it does – so that’s probably up there for me, as well.
Do you like to read books in a similar area to All About Us, or watch TV dramas to get ideas? Can you recommend any to us?
Yes! I really like Mike Gayle’s and Marian Keyes’ books, plus lots of other authors writing in a funny, clever, interesting way about modern relationships: Holly Bourne, David Nicholls, Kiley Reid, Beth O’Leary, Lisa Owens, Josie Silver. I am a big fan of funny novels in general, so for comic inspiration I’ll most often go back to stuff by Flann O’Brien, Sue Townsend and Dan Rhodes.
What does your typical writing day look like?
I usually like to go out to a library to write, rather than staying at home, as I tend to get much more done that way. But if that’s not possible, the first half-hour of my writing day will traditionally be given over to intense procrastination – probably tinkering pointlessly with my fantasy football team – before actually getting down to doing some work. I find I’m most productive in the morning, and I tend to work best if I set myself a concrete goal for the day – i.e. to finish a particular chapter, or hit a certain word count. My typical writing day will also involve at least six cups of tea and probably some Haribo.
Do you have any tips for aspiring writers?
My main tip would be to enter writing competitions! When you’re starting out as a writer, the hardest thing can be just FINISHING something, so competitions are a brilliant way to impose a deadline on yourself and get to the end of a draft. I started out writing Young Adult books, and my co-author Lucy Ivison and I decided to enter our first book into The Times/Chicken House children’s fiction competition. We were both working full-time, and it was so hard to motivate ourselves to write on the weekends and in the evenings after work, but the contest’s looming deadline gave us a reason to keep going. We would tell each other, ‘We HAVE to get this finished in time for that competition’, and honestly I think that’s the only reason we got it done! We ended up making the shortlist, and although we didn’t win, the book was still published anyway. So, I’d really advise having a search for any contests that cater for the kind of book you want to write, and then putting that deadline in your calendar as a goal to finish it by. You’ve got nothing to lose and so much to gain!