Happy January!

If you know me well you will know just how excited I was to read this book. For this reason and the fact I felt like I would be a little biased I wasn’t going to write a review on this.Nevertheless, I finished this book in a day and oh how do I have a lot to say.

I am going to do my best to not spoil any of this book but at the same time I need you to understand why when I finished the book the only words I could find to explain to my family why I had tears in my eyes was the fact it is AUTHENTICALLY BEAUTIFUL. It had me in tears, laughter and I can’t explain how many times my heart reacted.

Firstly the foreword… The fact the foreword was written by the stunningly beautiful Emma Watson immediately had my heart ready to burst. The way she speaks about him and their friendship is something I loved. Their friendship is one I am sure will last the ages but one I would consider myself incredibly lucky if I found someone in my life that I would describe this way. If you know me you will know that I have a soft spot for Emma Watson but also their friendship.

Beyond the Wand (What a title) gives us an insight to Toms life. From his early childhood, his potter years (We love us some Draco) and everything in between and beyond.

Compared to many a memoir/autobiographies I have read, despite not all the chapters being positive, the way it is written is so heart-warming and upbeat. making even the slightly more serious chapters easy to read.

We get to read about his family life and he’s three older brothers. When I tell you some of these chapters had me chuckling but also sometimes making my eyes well up. It was almost a feeling of honour that he chose to share some of this with us.

It turns out before his time as Draco, Tom had never read the books (I’m going to pretend this didn’t hurt) but it lead to an incredibly funny story about his audition and thankfully how he got his role as the Draco we know and love.

His stories about other co-stars, friends and families, were an utter pleasure to read. I wish we could ask him questions on some of these you know, over a cup of tea because some of them were really moving. Some incredibly funny and some I could almost picture his reactions to getting in trouble and being that cheeky chappy.

In the last few chapters, Tom describes his life post-Potter, his time living in LA, times where he had lost himself and even a chapter on his experiences with alcohol abuse, mental health. Before I say anymore on these chapters I have to state how proud I felt reading how open he could be with us, and how far he has come. I am not going to lie to you these no matter how positively he spoke about these experiences, they were a hard read, tears weld in my eyes and I certainly felt the need to give him a hug and tell him how proud I was (yes I know it sounds insane.)

That being said. These chapters shared the importance of speaking about mental health openly, the importance of getting help and the value this has brought to his life. Including help from the least expected places.

I am not normally a fan of an autobiography but I know this one will be a book I know I will pick up on many an occasion. I love that it felt so honest and so like Tom. (what I assume he is like) I feel like if you were to sit and have a cup of tea with him you would hear the same story and have the same reactions. To me this makes it one of the most authentically beautiful stories I have read in a long time.

In his acknowledgments he mentions 2:22 A Ghost Story and says that it is his first time on the west end. I just need to cover this really quickly as a side note. I took my cousin who is also a fellow slytherin to see this show, specifically because he was starring in it and it was her birthday. So we went to see someone we both admire. I can safely say not only was it one of the most amazing shows I have seen in the theatre for a long time you would not have known it was his first time on the west end.

We were lucky enough to meet him at the stage door, which in itself is an experience I will never forget. I wish we had a little longer with him to tell him what an incredible show and performance it was and just how long we had been fans of his for. This being said it was very busy and he had a lot of fans to get through. In her foreword to this book Emma says that when you meet him you are meeting Tom and it is just how he is. If this is true which I like to believe it is, he was one of the loveliest people in the world. We took photos with him and then stood to one side to process everything that happened. We had a mini freak out and realised very quickly after discussing how incredible he is in person that we were stood next to his brother. Who was chuckling at our reactions. Whoops! But what a way to celebrate her birthday.

Okay that was completely off topic but back to the book. It has got itself a top spot in my lists of favourite books read in the last few months.

I am giving it:

Have you read this book?

What did you think?

Love Always,

Gee xoxo