Introduction
Bolthole
Writing
Biography
Gallery
Awards
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Tim Bowler is one of the UK’s most compelling and original writers for teenagers. He was born in Leigh-on-Sea and after studying Swedish at University he worked in forestry, the timber trade, teaching and translating before becoming a full-time writer. He lives with his wife in a small village in Devon and his workroom is an old stone outhouse known to friends as ‘Tim’s Bolthole’.Tim has written twenty books and won fifteen awards, including the prestigious Carnegie Medal for River Boy. His most recent novel is the gripping Bloodchild and his provocative Blade series is being hailed as a groundbreaking work of fiction. He has been described by the Sunday Telegraph as ‘the master of the psychological thriller’ and by the Independent as ‘one of the truly individual voices in British teenage fiction’.
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"I live in the south-west of England in a quiet Devon village. It's a beautiful county and I've lived there since 1983. My workroom is an old stone outhouse ten minutes' walk from my home. Family and friends call it Tim's Bolthole. It's situated in a tranquil part of the village with nothing to hear but birdsong and the occasional snort of horses in some stables. When the weather's fine, I take my laptop out of the bolthole and into a nearby meadow so that I can sit and write outside. It's a lovely spot with hills rolling away into the distance, a badger sett down to the left and the tower of the village church just visible to the right. There are lots of foxes, rabbits and birds and sometimes you can see wild deer on the far slopes. It's a great place to think and write." Tim Bowler
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"Writing is my life. I've written stories since I was a boy. I'm a storyaholic. I believe in the power of stories to move us, entertain us and transform us. To me, writing is as much about listening as it is about putting down words. It starts with a whisper, a silent sound that flickers in the dark, then gradually, as you go on listening, you realise that the whisper has turned into an idea, and the idea into an obsession, and suddenly there are words on the page, and characters and settings, and the plot is bubbling around them like white water." "Some people think there must be a set of rules for writing but the truth is there aren't any. It's more like tickling trout, holding your hand out and trying to coax the ideas to swim into your grasp; or being a potter, throwing the rough clay of your thoughts down and letting the story twist out under the palms of your hands; or being a sorcerer, stirring the cauldron of your imagination and watching the vapour of the story rise. Writing is all these things and many more. It's something you never bottom, never crack, never stop learning about. And that's why I love it." Tim Bowler |
Tim was born in Leigh-on-Sea, a town situated on the south-east coast of England at a point where the Thames estuary widens into the North Sea and the ebb-tide leaves vast mudbanks stretching out from the shore. It's a very atmospheric place, especially the old seaside village called Old Leigh with its cobbled streets and cockle sheds and fishing boats. The house he grew up in overlooked the estuary and much of his time as a boy was spent in or on or just looking at the water.
He attended a local grammar school called Westcliff High School for Boys and at nineteen went away to the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich and studied Swedish and Scandinavian Studies for four years. One of these years was spent living in Sweden. After graduating, Tim married and worked in (among other things) forestry, timber, teaching, translating and various other jobs for several years before going full-time as a writer.
He has written since the age of five. He wrote short stories and comics as a boy, then mostly poetry in his student days. Tim started his first novel, Midget, at the age of 25 and wrote most of it during the early mornings between 3-7 a.m. before going out to work.
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Click on the image to view the gallery.
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