 There are other literary connections for Thurtell.Among his acquaintances were the essayist
William Hazlitt (who talked of him as "Tom Turtle" in the essay "The Fight"), the
sports historian Pierce Egan, and the writer George Borrow.Weare too had contact with the intelligentsia, as he frequently played billiards with the future controversial Shakespearean scholar John Payne Collier.