Healy, Thomas 1944-

PERSONAL:

Born 1944. Education: Left school at fifteen years old.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Glasgow, Scotland.

CAREER:

Worked as a shunter in a railway yard and a security guard at a meat market.

WRITINGS:

I Have Heard You Calling in the Night: A Memoir, Harcourt (Orlando, FL), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Thomas Healy grew up in Glasgow, Scotland, where he left school at fifteen to go to work. He served in a variety of positions, including as a shunter at a railway yard, and as a security guard for a meat market, but spent much of his time as an out-of-work writer, drinking too much and living with his mother. Then one day Healy adopted a Doberman pinscher puppy, whom he named Martin, and the responsibility of owning the dog and caring for it helped him turn his life around. I Have Heard You Calling in the Night: A Memoir is the story of Healy's relationship with his dog, and how caring for the animal changed the course of his own life. In a review for Booklist, David Pitt remarked on how Healy's book "offers a revealing lesson in how quickly, and unexpectedly, a life can change." A contributor for Kirkus Reviews noted that the book was "marked by blunt, unadorned prose," and, comparing it to another homage to dogs, Marley & Me, called Healy's effort a "darker-hued appreciation of a canine friend." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly wrote that "this eccentric friendship becomes the core of a moving meditation on the mysterious nature of redemption."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Healy, Thomas, I Have Heard You Calling in the Night: A Memoir, Harcourt (Orlando, FL), 2006.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, July 1, 2006, David Pitt, review of I Have Heard You Calling in the Night, p. 21.

Entertainment Weekly, October 6, 2006, Tina Jordan, review of I Have Heard You Calling in the Night, p. 73.

Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2006, review of I Have Heard You Calling in the Night, p. S14; July 1, 2006, review of I Have Heard You Calling in the Night, p. 662.

Library Journal, September 1, 2006, Alicia Graybill, review of I Have Heard You Calling in the Night, p. 156.

Publishers Weekly, June 5, 2006, review of I Have Heard You Calling in the Night, p. 45.

ONLINE

Guardian Online,http://books.guardian.co.uk/ (February 11, 2006), Paul Bailey, "Thomas Healy's ‘I Have Heard You Calling in the Night’ Is a Poignant and Enjoyable Memoir of a Man Redeemed by His Dog, Says Paul Bailey."