Tom Benson is a creative writer who has published novels, novellas, short story anthologies and a series of five poetry anthologies. He started his writing career in 2007, but in his words, “By then, I had learned enough about people and life to make my writing credible.”
He has won two short story competitions, had six short stories published in traditional anthologies and one on audio CD. One of Tom’s tales, Simply Irresistible, was requested by the World Reader organisation, which provides literary support for developing countries. In 2013, Tom’s poem, River Clyde was requested for use as supporting narrative, by a Masters Degree student studying Media at Glasgow University.
Prior to becoming a writer, Tom had two previous careers. In 1969 aged 17, he joined the British Army. He saw active service on the streets of Northern Ireland in the early and mid-1970s and served in West Berlin in the mid-1970s when the city was still divided by the infamous wall. Late in his career, he served in the desert, during the first Gulf War in 1991. Apart from working at trade as a radio operator in various units across Germany, Tom was a Military Training Instructor in Catterick for two years. He completed his service in 1992, in the rank of Staff Sergeant.
Following his military life, Tom trained in Retail Management, working in the food sector, car accessories and finally finding his niche with stationery. He stepped down to a Sales Assistant position in the final few years to concentrate on his writing ambitions. During his twenty-five years in retail, Tom believes he continued to learn about human relationships and what matters in life.
Tom was born in the East End of Glasgow, Scotland in 1952, which was a time when most telephone conversations were made using an ingenious device connected with a cable. Back then, cars were notable because of how few there were, not how many. Although he has lived in England since the completion of his military career, Tom feels a close connection to his hometown. He is a firm believer in the maxim, “You can take the man out of Glasgow, but you can’t take Glasgow out of the man.”
Tom is a self-taught artist and when not writing or reading can be found drawing or painting. Life-long interests of this author are physical fitness, natural history, and conservation. He is married with a grown-up son and a grandson, who is still a toddler (2024).
As a writer, Tom tends to have two or more ideas on the go. Tom’s longest-running project, A Life of Choice, is a five-part eBook novel. The story began life as a factual autobiography of the author’s military career. Following much soul-searching and using a variety of methods of telling the story, Tom settled for writing the tale as fact-based fiction. The tale took almost as long to write as the career to live. Part Five was published in November 2017, forty-eight years after Tom’s military career started. Tom converted the story (word for word), so it is now also available in paperback, as seen on the menu, A Life of Choice: The Trilogy Edtion.
Apart from writing, Tom was a founder member of the international Indie Author Support and Discussion group (IASD) on Facebook. He remained an Admin for several years.
He also mentors fellow writers who are at various stages of their creative writing journey. More information about all of Tom’s projects can be found on the News page of this website, and on the Work in Progress menu of Tom’s blog.