The Tim Walker Story

First cover and matching t-shirt for ‘Thames Valley Tales’

Tim Walker has been writing in one form or another since leaving Cardinal Allen Grammar School in Liverpool with a couple of ‘A’ levels. His first job, in 1980, was trainee reporter for a local newspaper in Liverpool, The Woolton Mercury. Here he learned lithographic printing, layout, news reporting and feature writing, soon progressing to film reviewing and writing a music column. He researched and wrote a series and booklet, The History of Woolton Hall. Amongst his interview subjects were Pink Panther film actor, Bert Kwok, and The Stranglers’ bass player, Jean Jacques Burnel.

Tim studied at the Polytechnic/University of Wales in South Wales where he was elected editor of the student news magazine, LEEK, before graduating with a BA Honours degree in Communication Studies (that included practical in scriptwriting and film production). For his film practical, he wrote, cast and directed a short film, Sam Shovel and the Case of the Missing Taxidermist, for which he received an ‘A’ grade. He was selected to direct and co-script the Polytechnic’s entry in the 1985 Fuji Student Film Competition. Based on a Susan Hill short story, Only the Natives came fourth out of a field of 12 national film courses.

After this, he gravitated to London and got a job as Assistant Circulation and Promotions Manager with the South London Press Group, based in Streatham. This was the start of a ten-year stint in the newspaper publishing industry, broken only by 9 months at Bristol Business School where he attained a post-graduate diploma in Marketing. The diploma won him an upgrade to the Group Marketing Department of United Provincial Newspapers Limited (later United News and Media) and a desk overlooking the River Thames in the shiny black tower, Ludgate House, next to Blackfriars Bridge. Here, his creative skills were adapted to meet commercial objectives in market research, advertising sales support and product development for regional newspaper titles.

Tim in VSO t-shirt at Victoria Falls

Faced with the sell-off of group titles, he jumped before he was pushed and resigned in the mid-90s to do voluntary worker with Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) in Zambia, working in educational book publishing development.  This involved organising and delivering training and support to local publishers and running the Zambia Book Fair.

Soon after, he set up and managed his own publishing, marketing and management company based in Lusaka, Zambia. He ‘lived the dream’ by publishing and editing his own magazine (Construction News) and newspaper (Business & Leisure News) in Zambia between 1999-2005.

Tim as Trustee of Men’s Matters charity, winners of Windsor & Maidenhead Council Voluntary Sector Team of the Year Award in 2017

In 2005 he took up the position of General Manager for a mineral exploration company, GeoQuest Limited based in Lusaka. After three years (that included a 3 month stint in the Democratic Republic of Congo), he joined Atlas Copco, as Lusaka Branch Manager. This was unexpectedly cut short after barely a year by the calamitous effect of the global recession on the company and the Zambian economy. As Chairman of Lusaka Rugby Club, Tim helped steer the club to a national league and cup double in 2008, also hosting a Rugby World Cup qualifier between Zambia and Morocco.

He returned to the UK in 2009 and now lives a less hectic life near Windsor in Berkshire where he writes creative fiction and helps out with a local charity, Men’s Matters.

By the end of 2021, Tim had written and self-published a five-book historical fiction history-meets-legend series, A Light in the Dark Ages; two books of short stories (Thames Valley Tales, Postcards from London); a dual timeline historical novel, Guardians at the Wall; a three-book children’s series co-written with his daughter, Cathy (The Adventures of Charly Holmes, Charly & the Superheroes, Charly in Space); a dystopian thriller novel (Devil Gate Dawn) and a collection of poems and short fiction (Perverse). He recently published A Light in the Dark Ages series in two hardback volumes, bringing his total number of titles to 15. Early 2022 finds him writing the sequel to Devil Gate Dawn, Devil Gate Day.