Airline pilot and debut author, Tom Elliott, is donating free books to the school where he learned to read and write

It's 18 months later and, in-between his day-job of flying passengers around Europe, Tom has now published his debut children's novel and is using profits from the first 350 sales to donate copies to the schools where he learned to read and write.

Tom Elliott grew up in a small village in rural Lincolnshire, spending numerous birthday parties ice skating and swimming at Doncaster Dome.

After completing his A-levels he spent a year traveling the world before studying Astrophysics at university, and then spending six years working for an engineering company.

He soon decided an office-job was not for him, so he left his job and sold his house to re-train to become a pilot. After two and a half years of training, Tom flew his first passenger jet to-and-from Doncaster Sheffield airport.

When he is not flying jets, or spending time with his family, Tom can be found rock climbing, mountain biking, or working on his next book in the Key Quest series.

Last year, Tom paid for 100 copies of his draft debut novel “Key Quest: Crossings” to be sent to a number of schools around the country to get feedback from children in his target age range (10-14 years old).

Over several months he received feedback from the students on what they liked and (more importantly) how to improve the story.

Over the next 18 months, in between his day-job of flying for a European airline, Tom fine-tuned his story, until just a few weeks ago he published his book on amazon.

After enjoying the experience of working with students to perfect the final draft of his novel, he is now using the profits from the first 350 sales to donate more books to schools, including the school in Lincolnshire where he wrote the very first draft of his book at age 12 - 24 years ago.

About the bookKey Quest is a fantasy adventure novel, written for readers aged 10-14 and will appeal to those who enjoyed Harry Potter and books by Philip Pullman.

It is a classic adventure story; a modern day cross between The Hobbit and The Tales of Narnia, packed full of unexpected plot twists and end of chapter cliff hangers.

Key Quest: Crossings - 24 years in the makingTom wrote the very first version of Key Quest as a piece of homework in 1998 when he was 12 years old. In 2003, when he was 17, he expanded it as part of his A-levels and in 2018 he revisited it again, changing the name of the main character and printing it as a short booklet for his nephew - William. In 2020, during lockdown, Tom took the opportunity to expand Key Quest into a full length fantasy novel. He contacted an artist he met whilst rock climbing in Morocco to help develop the front cover and in November 2022 he released “Key Quest: Crossings”, his debut novel. He plans to use the profits from the first 350 copies to donate books to schools – including those where he learned to read and write, and where he wrote the first version of the story all those years ago.

Instagram: @tom.elliott.kqTwitter: @TEElliott3