Tim Dowling

Robert Timothy Dowling (/ˈdaʊlɪŋ/; born June 1963) is an American journalist and author who writes a weekly column in The Guardian about his life with his family in London.

Tim Dowling
Dowling playing the banjo in the band Police Dog Hogan
Born	Robert Timothy Dowling[1] June 1963[2] Connecticut,[3] United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	Journalist
Known for	Writing

Career

Dowling worked in data entry for a films database before he became a freelance journalist, first working for GQ, then women's magazines and the Independent on Sunday.[4] He is a columnist for The Guardian and has a weekly column in the paper's Saturday magazine, Weekend. His column replaced Jon Ronson's in 2007. He writes observational columns, often about his wife.[5] Sam Leith of The Guardian noted that "Dowling's a very fresh and smart writer, as he needs to be. Stories about machete massacres or ebola pandemics pretty much write themselves: writing about nothing much, week in, week out, is the real test."[6] He also worked as a cartoonist for a short time.[7]

Dowling's books include a 2001 book about disposable razor inventor King Camp Gillette,[8] Suspicious Packages and Extendable Arms, a collection of his writing from The Guardian, and The Giles Wareing Haters' Club, his 2007 debut novel concerning a journalist Googling himself (narcissurfing[9]) who finds an online club of people who hate him, inspired by Dowling searching for his name online.[10] Giles Wareing was reviewed by TLS.[11] Metro said it is "a fine comedy of domestic triviality".[12]

Dowling said of his 2014 book How to Be a Husband "It got quite a bit of publicity in the U.K. when it came out and [my wife] wasn’t prepared for all that."[13] Tom Hodgkinson writing in The Spectator called this book "a rare delight".[14] Leith in The Guardian said there is "pleasure and treasure here."[6] David Evans wrote in The Independent, "It’s a rare thing to be able to write about life as a husband and father in such a way as to elicit nods of recognition among those who are neither of those things; Dowling does it with panache."[15]

Published work

• Inventor of the Disposable Culture: King Camp Gillette 1855-1932 (Faber & Faber, 2001, ISBN 978-0571208104)
• Not the Archer prison diary (Ebury Press, 2002, ISBN 0091892392
• Suspicious Packages & Extendable Arms (Guardian Newspapers Ltd, 2007, ISBN 0-85265-087-6)
• The Giles Wareing Haters' Club (Picador, 2008, ISBN 0-330-44617-7)
• How to Be a Husband (Fourth Estate, 2014, ISBN 978-0-00-752766-3)
• Dad You Suck (Fourth Estate, 2017, ISBN 978-0-00-752769-4)

Personal life

Dowling was born in Connecticut. His mother was a schoolteacher, his father was a dentist, and he has a brother and two sisters.[4] He moved to the UK from New York at the age of 27 and currently lives in London with his wife Sophie de Brandt[16][17] and their three sons.[18] He enjoys skiing with his sons, having learned to ski as a child in the US.[19]

Dowling has played banjo (which his wife bought for his birthday) in the band Police Dog Hogan[20][21] since 2009, and he writes self-deprecatingly about their festival gigs, including Glastonbury, in his column.[22][23][24]

References

1. "How to be a Husband web sampler". Harper Collins. Retrieved June 17, 2017.
2. "Robert Timothy Dowling". Companies House. Retrieved June 17, 2017.
3. Author page, Pan Macmillan website
4. Ridout, Annie (December 26, 2016). "Tim Dowling on fatherhood, marriage and freelancing". The Early Hour. Retrieved June 18, 2017.
5. Muller-Heyndyk, Rachel (March 24, 2017). "Interview: The Guardian columnist, Tim Dowling". Xcity Plus. City University. Retrieved June 18, 2017.
6. Leith, Sam (June 12, 2014). "How to Be a Husband review – Tim Dowling's take on marriage". The Guardian. Retrieved June 19, 2017.
7. Sauer, Patrick (February 20, 2015). "Deciphering Daddy: A Q&A with Tim Dowling, Author of How to Be a Husband". Signature. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
8. Dowling, Tim (May 10, 2001). "Genius at the cutting edge". Retrieved June 20, 2017.
9. Courtney, Kevin (February 19, 2008). "ConText: NNarcissurfing". Irish Times. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
10. Dowling, Tim (2007-04-14). "Comedy of manners". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2009-01-01.
11. Clark, Alex (July 6, 2007). "The Giles Wareing Haters' Club". Retrieved June 20, 2017.
12. "The Giles Wareing Haters' Club". Metro. May 31, 2007. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
13. Hunter, Jennifer (March 13, 2015). "Guardian columnist Tim Dowling on how to be a husband". Toronto Star. Retrieved June 19, 2017.
14. Hodgkinson, Thomas W. (July 12, 2014). "A guide to marriage, moving and fatherhood – and also not a bad tool with which to beat your solicitor to death". The Spectator. Retrieved June 18, 2017.
15. Evans, David (May 30, 2015). "Paperback book reviews: The Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro, How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran, Gut by Giulia Enders, How to be a Husband by Tim Dowling, The Mongol Empire by John Man". The Independent. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
16. Sawyer, Miranda (October 11, 2014). "5 Live Daily; Woman's Hour; Today – radio review". The Guardian. Retrieved June 18, 2017.
17. "Tim Dowling and his wife Sophie de Brandt go to war". Woman's Hour. BBC Radio 4. October 9, 2014. Retrieved June 19, 2017.
18. Dowling, Tim (2008-11-15). "'I have known my wife for many years, and the children are right to be afraid'". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2009-01-01.
19. Morris, Hugh (September 24, 2013). "Tim Dowling: On the chairlift with..." The Telegraph. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
20. Police Dog Hogan
21. Hughes, Tim (January 23, 2014). "Top dogs find middle ground - interview with Police Dog Hogan". York Press. Retrieved June 18, 2017.
22. Dowling, Tim (June 25, 2015). "You're never too old for Glastonbury". Radio Times. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
23. Hobbs, Mary Anne. "Tim Dowling: The Joy Of Playing In A Part-Time Band". BBC 6 Music. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
24. Smith Hughes, Harriet (February 15, 2013). "Middle-Aged-Man-Band?". Cherwell. Retrieved June 20, 2017.

External links

• Tim Dowling's Guardian column with full archives