Author Tim Bowler - Winner of the Carnegie Medal

WELCOME TO TIM'S OFFICIAL WEBSITE. This website is reviewed and updated on a regular basis so you'll find the very latest information here on all his books, and other things you might be interested in.

NOW IN THE SHOPS......

BLADE: This is Tim's new thriller series. It will run over eight books. Book 1 is called Playing Dead, Book 2 is called Closing In, Book 3 is called Breaking Free and Book 4 is called Running Scared. These are now in the shops. Book 5 is called Fighting Back and will be available in September 2009. Books 6, 7 and 8 will be published in January, April and September 2010. The BLADE books are shorter than his novels (each is about 25,000 words long) and the story concerns a feral boy of fourteen who since the age of eleven has been living in hiding beneath the police and social radar. He has reasons for keeping out of sight because he has a lot of enemies, some of whom are very nasty people indeed. But they're not the only ones who are dangerous. The boy is dangerous too - very. Find out more about him in the BLADE sections of this site.

BLADE: Playing Dead is now available as an unabridged audio book produced by Oakhill Publishing. Playing Dead is superbly read by actor Tim Bruce. His films include Bright Young Things, Dead in the Water, the BAFTA-awarded Supertramp and the RTS awarded Boheme. He has been seen on television in Family Affairs, 55 Degrees North, Bleak House, Suspicious Circumstances and Byker Grove. Tim Bruce will also narrate BLADE 2: Closing In. An extract from the Playing Dead (Audiobook) will be available soon on this site. Order Playing Dead (Audiobook)

Tim has just received news that BLADE: Playing Dead is this year's winner of The Somerset Teenage Fiction Award. The Somerset Fiction Award gives the young people of Somerset an opportunity to have their say and vote for their favourite book. The reading list was compiled last summer and reading took place from September until March, when voting took place.

The Times and The Sunday Times are running a Books for Schools scheme. The aim of the scheme is to provide as many free books as possible for schools' libraries. BLADE: Playing Dead is included in the list of 170 titles available. Playing Dead was highlighted as one of the top titles in an article in The Sunday Times on 15th March.

BLADE: Playing Dead has been published in America and has also been chosen to be part of the Summer 2009 collection of The Junior Library Guild of America. The Junior Library Guild began in 1929 as a children’s version of the Literary Guild. The Guild’s Book Club is used by libraries across America to select books that engage young minds and foster a love of books and reading. Frozen Fire was chosen in 2008.

BLADE: Playing Dead and Closing In have been published by Rosinante & Co in Denmark.

Tim is interviewed about BLADE at Write Away and need2know.

BLOODCHILD: Tim's new novel is called Bloodchild - also now available in paperback in the shops. It is another long book with strong mystical overtones about a village with a terrible secret and a boy who sees too much. Order Bloodchild.

FROZEN FIRE: Frozen Fire has now won six awards: the Stockport Schools Book Award, the Highland Book Award, the Hull Book Award, the Redbridge Book Award, the South Lanarkshire Book Award and the Southern Schools Book Award. These awards are a huge honour to be shortlisted for and even more of an honour to win. Tim is delighted that Frozen Fire has done so well.

KOREA: Tim has been particularly successful in Korea over the last year where River Boy was the Number 1 Bestseller in the country and remained in the bestseller lists for over six months. River Boy was followed by a Korean edition of Starseeker. In July 2008, Tim visited the country to take part in the launch there of Shadows. His visit included a press conference, interviews, book signings and a high-profile keynote address in Seoul. All the major Korean newspapers covered the visit and Tim was deeply touched by the warmth of the Korean people and their enthusiasm for his work. Tim's first novel, Midget, has also just appeared in a Korean edition. A fifteen-minute film of Tim speaking from his writing bolthole to his Korean readers will appear on this site shortly. Tim’s Korean publishers, Dasan Books, will be bringing out Frozen Fire later in 2009.

SIMON MAYO SHOW: Tim will be joining the Books Panel on the Simon Mayo show on Thursday 4 June. You will be able to download a podcast of the show.

BOLTHOLE BULLETINS

"I don’t normally write at home. I prefer to work in an old cobwebby outhouse at the other end of the village. My family and friends call it Tim's Bolthole and I thought it might be nice to start sending out newsy messages from it. I'm going to call these messages Bolthole Bulletins. They'll appear once a month, and I'm going to video them straight to camera. I'll talk about what I'm working on, answer questions that have come in, update you on what I've been doing and what I've got coming up, and finish with a short reading. The Bolthole Bulletins will be starting quite soon and if you would like to receive them each month, you'll be able to sign up to a regular e-mail alert which will automatically send you the link to the video."

Tim Bowler

Hope you enjoy the site.