Ellesmere author overcomes dyslexia to write
For Tomos Roberts, a career as an author never even crossed his mind.
The 24-year-old from Ellesmere has severe dyslexia so it was never something that he thought he would be able to accomplish.
But with two published books and a third ready to hit the shelves, he has proved just about everybody – including himself – wrong.
Mr Roberts, who publishes under the name Tomos A Roberts said: "I have severe dyslexia – I am in the top percentage in the world, so my writing is abysmal which is quite ironic.
"I was never really interested in writing until after university when I went to join the Army airborne.
"After selection I was given the lowest grade, and it was down to my dyslexia.
"That was a massive shock because I thought it was going really well, but because of my dyslexia I couldn't write orders and different things.
"It made me realise a lot of jobs would be difficult for me."
Mr Roberts spent his time coaching sports in the afternoons and evenings and found himself without something to do in the day.
He said: "That's when I started writing – it was more just something to do.
"My writing is not particularly good, so it is good that I have great friends and family who almost translate it all for me.
"A lot of people seem to have liked my writing, and it has gone from there.
"The first one was doing it for fun, now I have agents in America and I am pretty much doing this full time." His series, Riders of the North, is made up of three books – The Horse Lord, Rose's Story, and The Games, which is coming soon.
He said: "Rose's Story is my most recent published one and that is my second novel, although I wrote the third one first.
"That one was a lot longer, and these two come before that story.
"It is a fantasy story and it is a little bit of a cross between Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings. Now Mr Roberts is keen to get other people with dyslexia having a go at writing.
He said: "That is the aim – if I can inspire people with dyslexia to do it that would be fantastic. I've shown I can do it, so I want to show they can as well."
For more information about Mr Roberts and his work visit ridersofthenorth.wordpress.com
