We were lucky enough to have a chat with Tom Tilley when he visited Riverbend Books this week and signed copies of his newly released memoir 'Speaking in Tongues'.
Did you have any writing rituals when writing this memoir?
I wrote the book by hand with pen and paper. I mostly wrote outdoors, usually at a park bench by a beach in Sydney. I loved the ritual of looking at the horizon and then looking at the page. Just taking moments to think, jog memories, then going back to writing by hand. I also only liked to write if I had at least three or four hours of space. I never needed a whole day, but I couldn't just go for an hour or two. I needed the right vibe.
How do you feel about the book now that it is out of your hands?
I'm really happy with it and loving the reactions I have been getting from people. I thought it might give people hope who are, even broadly, in similar situations. What I am amazed by is the people who have been in very similar situations telling me that they feel like I am telling their story. The power of reading something you can relate to seems to be really liberating. Somehow people feel supported or acknowledged or even seen by just reading a story that is similar to their own. I think it's because no one had really explored this tiny corner of the Pentecostal experience.
And also it's representation. To see yourself somewhere else can be hugely impactful for people, especially when it comes to minorities, or a sub group of a minority.
Yeah, and I hadn't understood that as well as I do now. Even after being on radio and putting everyone's stories to air for years and hearing people respond on talk back. But this is a whole other thing - and this story is told in the kind of detail you can only do in a book, where you have that much space.
If 'Speaking in Tongues' was made into a movie, who do you see playing the main characters?
I would like to have Aaron Eckhart from 'Thank You for Smoking' and 'The Dark Night'. We have a real resemblance and I like him on screen. So he would play me. Maybe Ron Howard for later in my life?
What are you reading at the moment?
I am reading Kate Langbroek's 'Ciao, Bella!' We are going to speak together at a writer's festival next week. It has lots of cute Italian texture and a heart-felt family at the centre of the story.
What are you working on now?
I'm thinking about documentary ideas that might be adjacent to my book. But that's in very early stages.
Tom Tilley is an Australian television and radio presenter and journalist who is currently a reporter for the news talk show The Project. He was previously the host of daily radio news program Hack on Triple J between 2011 and 2019.