Tony Mortimer had never finished a novel before lockdown – but has now ploughed through 65 and is even writing one of his own.
Tony Mortimer
The East 17 singer admitted the coronavirus pandemic has changed his life and credited his 27-year-old daughter Ocean for igniting his newfound love of reading by downloading an app onto his mobile phone.
He said: “I can’t remember reading a novel ever. I’ve read books about music and stuff, but I’d never read a novel. I couldn’t think of anything more boring.”
The 50-year-old star started with Eva Pohler’s mystery ‘Secrets of the Greek Revival’ and was quickly hooked.
He said: “It dragged me in like that girl that fell down the rabbit hole, Alice in Wonderland.
“I remember the first book, I thought I’m gonna force myself to get to the end of this. And I did, and I’ve just fallen in love with reading. It’s absolutely escapism from the world.”
Tony has now enjoyed works from the likes of “great storyteller” Roald Dahl, “smooth” J.K. Rowling and “genius” Stephen King, and is looking forward to tackling more challenging books from the likes of Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare.
The ‘Steam’ hitmaker is also 10,000 words into writing his own novel, thanks to the help of horror author King’s ‘On Writing’ guide.
He told the Sunday Times newspaper: “I’ve realised my first 10,000 words are not in the right order.
“I thought when you write a story, you go, ‘Once upon a time this happened, that happened, the end.’
“But it’s not chronological ... I pretty much started in the middle. Then I went to the other end. Then I went back to the beginning with an idea…
“You might write a whole paragraph or a chapter and it doesn’t work. And who cares? Just throw it in the bin and do another one.”
Tony is now looking for a literary agent and plans to join a writing class.
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