TL:dr summary: I'm just talking about why and how I wrote 'Goodbye Britain' here. Then, if you jump to the bottom, you can read my self-deprecating 'bio', too.

About 'Goodbye Britain'

This idea started after reading Craig Taylor's excellent book, 'Londoners', in which he spoke to every day people living in London from a range of backgrounds and positions. His first person narrative approach captured their thoughts, feelings, and individual character traits perfectly. I thought a similar approach would work well for British people who have emigrated, something I've experienced since moving to Germany in September 2017.

I started by talking to friends and family who'd made similar at various points, with the intention of turning those conversations in a little 'zine for my circle of contacts. After some great chats with friends, it became obvious that many of our stories and experiences were similar. And while that doesn't diminish any of what we've lived through, I soon realized that the articles would end up fairly repetitive and with limited outside appeal. I parked the idea for a while, briefly toyed with the idea of writing a blog about ice hockey players or doing a podcast, and then had major envy once I saw some of my friends publish their own books (Tom and Chris, that's you). I talked the idea through with the aforementioned Tom while walking up steep hills together in his new hometown in Osaka, and set about once I returned to Germany in March 2020.

Between March and August 2020, I spoke to over 100 British people about their emigration experiences. The people were predominantly found in Facebook groups, through Twitter hashtags, and a few were personal introductions from mutual friends. Over 80% of them were complete strangers to me at the time of meeting, so I heard their stories for the first, and often only, time on those calls. The video meetings, phone calls, and voice notes totaled over 5,000 minutes, introduced me to people in over 40 different countries, and saw me listening to their stories throughout the day and night. Some people dropped out, others ghosted me, and several mislead me about being British at first (so, obviously, weren't entertained for much longer).

After recording the calls (with permission), I transcribed every word they said, and then turned those words into 800-1200 word extracts in the first person for each of them. The finished extracts were then approved by those involved, with a few hiccups and upsets along the way. For many, it was the first time they'd read their spoken words back to themselves, so it was certainly an eye-opening experience. Talking about your life and your feelings to a complete stranger (that's me) isn't something we all do on a regular basis, so I can't credit 'my people' enough, really.

Using a first-person, spoken narrative was incredibly important to me. I wanted to capture the 'real person' behind the stories and hear their instinctive ways of explaining their decisions and how they've found their experience. When approached, some did want to submit written pieces or asked me to link to their blogs, but I really didn't see any value in collating blog posts into a book, so moved onto different people.

Despite all starting life in Britain, the people featured in this book are a diverse, well-represented crowd. They've lived in different British cities, towns, and villages, they've worked in different professions, and they all had unique characteristics that made them fascinating to speak to. While there are themes that link many of them together, the main ones I've used as book chapters, they all had their own takes on what it's like to leave Britain. Some have loved it, others struggled, and a handful have since returned to the UK. I used being 'British' as the link that tied everyone together, largely because it was something clearly defined that I could relate to myself. While immigration stories from all nationalities are interesting, I wanted shared experiences that I could personally relate to.

This is already a long page, so I'll wrap up now. The people featured in 'Goodbye Britain - Talking to the Brits Who Packed Their Bags and Left' deserve immense credit for their openness, their willingness to share their life stories with strangers, and, ultimately, their trust in me. I really hope I've represented them in the way they'd like to be seen.

About Tom Beck

I recently joked on Twitter that, as a nobody, the idea of writing a 'bio' felt ridiculous to me. I then thought I could just keep it simple, so came up with the following:

“Tom Beck is a middle child, if that answers your question”.