Questions and Answers Lost Highway
Who is Tommy Kennedy IV?
Tommy Kennedy IV is a British author, traveller, and survivor whose life reads like the stories he writes. Born in Warrington. Lives in London, he’s lived a dozen lives in one — from hustler to storyteller, from outlaw to author.
He spent fifteen years travelling the world, working every kind of job going. He ran a beach bar called The Ten Million Dollar View on Lamai Beach, Koh Samui, Thailand, until a brush with the law landed him in jail and deported for selling weed.
Before that, he was involved in a ringing-the-changes scam — a cash trick that took him across the UK and Europe until he was caught in Sweden, arrested, and deported. That was the moment it hit him — the karma, the chaos, the cost of every easy pound. He walked away from that life and never looked back. Twenty-four years clean, not a bit of trouble since.
He’s also laid bricks under the Australian sun, managed rock and roll bands (Steve Dior, Slydigs, Pink Cigar), and worked with charities including Oxfam, Musicians Against Homelessness, and Prisoners Abroad.
These days, Tommy channels the wildness of his past into words. He’s studying Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London (2022–2027), right in Bloomsbury — once home to Virginia Woolf and the literary rebels of her age. From mixing mortar to crafting sentences, he’s still building something that lasts.
What is Nightmare in Jamaica about?
It’s the true story that put Tommy’s name on the map. A near-death experience in paradise that forced him to face everything he’d been running from — addiction, betrayal, and the brutal price of freedom. Nightmare in Jamaica is a raw memoir about survival, transformation, and redemption when the odds are stacked against you.
Have you really lived all this?
Every line’s earned. I’ve hitchhiked across South East Asia — Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, Cambodia — and fallen in love with India’s noise and colour, its contradictions and beauty. I ran bars, laid bricks, played music, got jailed, deported, and banned from America for twenty years back in 2004. But I turned it all around.
For the last twenty-four years, I’ve lived straight, written honest, and used my past to build something worth keeping.
How many books have you written?
More than ten, spanning memoir, travel, and noir fiction — all born from experience. Three of those books now sit in the British Library, which is poetic considering I once worked as a builder on that same site.
What are your books about?
Survival. Redemption. The beauty in broken things.
Tommy writes in a British noir style — fast, cinematic, and hard-hitting — blending grit, truth, and dark humour. His stories capture working-class lives and the thin line between chaos and clarity.
Why do you write?
Because the truth doesn’t vanish if you ignore it — it festers. I write to drag it out into daylight, to give voice to the people who never get heard. Writing’s my rehab. It’s how I turn regret into art.
Do you do interviews or live events?
Yes. I speak at readings, universities, and writing festivals about survival, second chances, and turning a chaotic past into powerful stories.
Contact me through my website for interviews, collaborations, or event bookings.
Do you work with charities?
I do. I’ve supported Oxfam, Musicians Against Homelessness, and Prisoners Abroad, helping raise funds and awareness for people rebuilding after crisis. My work’s rooted in empathy — I’ve been there, and I know what it costs to start over.
What inspires you?
People. Cultures. Redemption. I draw from everywhere I’ve lived — the beaches of Thailand, the heat of India, the rhythm of Indonesia, and the energy of Hong Kong and Singapore. Travel taught me perspective; survival taught me purpose.
What are you working on now?
I’m finishing the follow-up to El Peculiar: The Colombian Gangster, written in my signature noir style. It’s about corruption, loyalty, and the human cost of ambition — everything I’ve lived, just dressed in different clothes.
Any advice for new writers?
Don’t fake it. Live first, write second. The best stories come from scars, not imagination. Travel if you can — listen more than you talk — and never fear your truth. That’s where the power is.
Favourite memory from your travels?
Waking up somewhere between Bangkok and Phnom Penh on a bus full of strangers — dust in the air, music on the radio, no plan, no fear. That’s when I realised freedom isn’t escape. It’s acceptance.
Where can readers buy your books?
Directly from www.tommykennedyiv.com, or through Amazon, Waterstones, and Bookshop.org.
Follow the story:
Instagram / X (Twitter): @TommyKennedyIV
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