Tom Hanks subscribes to Shropshire designer's magazine
He is one of Hollywood's biggest superstars and has appeared in a host of hit movies during an impressive career to date.
Now it has emerged, in the downtime between movies, Tom Hanks enjoys quirky short stories and reading magazines.
Hanks has taken a subscription to a Shropshire designer’s one-man, creative magazine.
Elsie Magazine, which was launched in 2011, is the work of Les Jones – a designer and photographer based in Woore, near Market Drayton.
Hanks was so impressed with the magazine he sent a letter accepting the invitation to subscribe to it as well as a Polaroid of him reading it.
Mr Jones, 58, said: "Well that was a bit strange! A couple of friends got married in Iceland and I did their wedding photography as a favour. They said they wanted to do something unusual as a thank you.
"One story, featured in issue #2 of the magazine, was on my fascination with discarded industrial gloves, which I find on the side of roads.
"It’s a fascination that I apparently share with Tom Hanks, who posts pictures of lost and discarded gloves on his Twitter feed.
"My friend sent a copy of the magazine to him and he received a hand-typed letter accepting an invitation to subscribe to the magazine and a Polaroid of the actor reading the magazine.
"It was a bit bonkers and a major surprise. To see a man of his stature like my magazine is a bit mad."
Mr Jones described the content of the magazine as an "eclectic and visual collection of stories and observations".
"Outside doing paying work, I do a lot of personal photography and designer/creative projects etc," he said.
"About six years ago I had created so much content I thought what was I going to do with it all, so that is when I decided to start a magazine.
"I use the magazine now to showcase all my work. I do everything – designing, writing, illustration, photography. The only thing I don't do is the physical printing.
"I have done six editions – five official and one which was a side project.
"I have hundreds of subscribers. The feedback is great and people seem to really like it.
"Its an eclectic, off the wall magazine. It goes wherever it goes and I do whatever I want to.
"For one issue I decided to do a random visit somewhere. I put the names of countries in a hat and got my youngest son to pull out one.
"It was Poland, so I got a large map of Poland out and threw a dart which landed on a small town which I had never heard of. I went there for five days, met the people and created stories based on my visit.
"In another issue, I created the whole thing around one photograph I took when I was in London.
"It was of a sign covered in stickers. I thought every sticker told a story so I decided to track down everyone who was behind the stickers. It took me all over Europe and New York."
In his letter, Hanks said: "Elise is a gorgeous magazine.
"I'll take the subscription you promised in exchange for the enclosed.
"I am now all in favour of one-man (or one-woman) independent magazines, as they will make the world a little more lovely of a place.
"And, as I paraphrase from the Christmas message from Apollo 8, it makes a little bit better a place for all of us on the Good Earth..."
American actor and filmmaker Hanks is known for his various comedic and dramatic film roles, including Splash, Big, Turner & Hooch, A League of Their Own, Sleepless in Seattle, Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Apollo 13 , Captain Phillips, Saving Mr. Banks and Sully.
He is also known for starring in the Robert Langdon film series, as well as for his voice work as Sheriff Woody in the Toy Story film series.
