Brief Reflections on Promoting My Little Orange Trojan Horse

1. Promoting one’s own work is inherently uncomfortable, even for a barrister versed in the art of the humblebrag. But seeing the most unspeakable abuses in my novel play out in real life has made me keener to shout about it. 

   
   

2. From the undercover exposé of abuse inside Brook House Immigration Removal Centre to the UK’s unlawful Rwanda policy, for years every immigration story that broke seemed to mirror my plot in some way. Each time, I felt obliged to revise my manuscript to make the crimes in the novel (still) more heinous - to stay ahead of reality.

   
   

3. In the end, I seized on an abuse so unspeakable it barely seemed plausible. But a few months later, when Sanctuary was on submission to publishers, the unthinkable happened…(read novel’s Endnote).

   
   

4. For all its humour, romance, playfulness and twists – for all its fun – Sanctuary is at heart a deadly serious story, ‘a furious defence of the voiceless’, as the brilliant Chris Cleave recently described it, ‘that speaks for the migrants our politics would rather silence.’  

   
   

5. I’ve tended to underplay the novel's moral seriousness, for fear of mischaracterising it as a polemic. Unlike the mighty and incomparable John Steinbeck, I was less intent on ‘put(ting) a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this’, and more concerned with exploring the murderous effect of human neglect. 

   
   

6. With that focus in mind, I hope Sanctuary helps shift the national conversation away from myopic arguments about what benefit or detriment those fleeing desperation might bring us, and towards broader discussions of how, collectively, we can address and eliminate the afflictions they flee. 

   
   

7. And while I’m under no illusions about the enormity of such challenges, this generous review last week from book world veteran, Anthea Morton-Saner, gives me hope that my efforts haven’t been entirely in vain: ‘Any book which can entertain, make you laugh, make you gasp and make you cry as well as get you to examine your own opinions is worth taking time to read. Sanctuary by Tom Gaisford is such a book…not only is it a great story well told by an author who knows what he is writing about, but it also makes you re-evaluate your own opinions about immigration and asylum and the way we treat each other.’ 

   
   

   (Artwork by Yasmin G)

   
   

   Paperback release 30 October '25 - to pre-order at 15% discount click here and enter code sypb1025

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