Tom Connolly is a British filmmaker, novelist, and photographer. He is best known for his debut novel The Spider Truces (2010), which was a Financial Times Book of the Year, and for Fair Game (2021), a photographic work on grassroots football. His film work has appeared on Channel 4 and the BBC, and his radio plays have been broadcast on Radio 4. His short story The Man in the Lift was shortlisted for the Imison Award.
Tom Connolly began his career directing short films, commercials, and music videos. Several of his short films won awards on the festival circuit, establishing him as a filmmaker before he transitioned to fiction writing. He later published short stories and plays, developing a parallel career in literature and broadcasting.
His first novel, The Spider Truces (2010), follows a boy’s adolescence in rural England. It was shortlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Award, and longlisted for the 2011 Desmond Elliott Prize. The Financial Times named it one of its Books of the Year.
In 2016, he published his second novel, Men Like Air, set in New York. The book explored themes of brotherhood, grief, and personal reinvention. Speaking of his late brother, Connolly wrote: “We got it right, we’ve been good brothers.” That loss, and the reflection on sibling bonds, has informed much of his later writing.
In 2021, he released Fair Game, a photographic collection on non-league football. The project combined colour and black-and-white photography, recording the lives of supporters and players outside the professional game.
“I saw my first match at the age of 4, at the oasis of cheeky repartee that was Millwall’s The Den,” Connolly recalled. “To find the magical feeling I used to get from going there with my dad, I had to search elsewhere. This book of photographs is the story of that search.”
The collection was praised as a timely reminder of the vitality of local football culture.
Photo credits: Yves Salmon
Tom Connolly began his career directing short films, commercials, and music videos. Several of his short films won awards on the festival circuit, establishing him as a filmmaker before he transitioned to fiction writing. He later published short stories and plays, developing a parallel career in literature and broadcasting.
His first novel, The Spider Truces (2010), follows a boy’s adolescence in rural England. It was shortlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Award, and longlisted for the 2011 Desmond Elliott Prize. The Financial Times named it one of its Books of the Year.
In 2016, he published his second novel, Men Like Air, set in New York. The book explored themes of brotherhood, grief, and personal reinvention. Speaking of his late brother, Connolly wrote: “We got it right, we’ve been good brothers.” That loss, and the reflection on sibling bonds, has informed much of his later writing.
In 2021, he released Fair Game, a photographic collection on non-league football. The project combined colour and black-and-white photography, recording the lives of supporters and players outside the professional game.
“I saw my first match at the age of 4, at the oasis of cheeky repartee that was Millwall’s The Den,” Connolly recalled. “To find the magical feeling I used to get from going there with my dad, I had to search elsewhere. This book of photographs is the story of that search.”
The collection was praised as a timely reminder of the vitality of local football culture.
Photo credits: Yves Salmon
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