tim relf

Hello!

… and thanks for visiting my site.

You'll find some stuff here about me and my books, some extracts of my journalism as well as a few tips on writing and getting published.

Authors sometimes forget it's their books (if they're lucky!) and not them that people are interested in, but for what it's worth, I was born in 1968, I'm a journalist and I live on the edge of London.

I've always written - but it never occurred to me until I was well into my 30s that I might get a novel published.

Writing was just something I did. A hobby. My friends went cycling or worked on cars or did DIY. I tried cycling, but fell off. I tried working on cars, but they dropped in value. I tried DIY, but the house ended up worse than before. Writing's the only thing that's ever come naturally to me. So I got up early and did it every day.

Through my 20s, I accumulated boxfuls of scribblings - sketches, observational pieces, exchanges of dialogue, random chapters. For years, though, they were unrelated and unconnected. It never felt like they were going anywhere. Then I realised one day that it wouldn't involve any more work to actually tackle a novel.

Write about what you know, people told me. And I figured I loved pub culture - so that was as good a place to start as any. And so my first book, Stag, was born.

Stag is set around the events of a stag weekend - and I reckon anyone who's ever woken up and muttered the immortal words 'never again' might see a little bit of themselves in it.

Like a lot of first novels, it was tough to finish because it was an act of faith. I was writing it without a publishing deal. I just had this intangible sense that I'd never forgive myself if I stopped.

There was, of course, one other thing that kept me writing. I figured after telling everyone for years that I had a book in me that I actually had to write the damn thing!

It was published in 2004 by Piatkus and a little later by Time Warner in America (hence the two covers - the American one's the blue one).

My second book, Home, came out a year later. This follows the fortunes of a 20-something who's forced to return to his childhood home in a bid to keep his wayward parents in order.

As a journalist, meanwhile, I've been lucky enough to write for loads of magazines and papers, including The Times, The Daily Express, Time Out, Loaded and Country Life (the last two were rather different articles, I have to say!)

It’s a struggle juggling my day job and my fiction - but that’s the case for so many writers. I never cease to be impressed by the determination and temerity so many people show in a bid to get their book written.

I'd love to hear from you, so please get in touch. All comments about my work - good and bad - are much appreciated and I always try to reply. You can email me on tim@timrelf.com.

Lots of reviewers have mentioned my work’s TV or film potential, so if you’re interested in bringing it to the big or small screen then I’d also love to hear from you. This is what The Los Angeles Times said about Stag: "…multiplex-friendly plotting… Imagine Augusten Burroughs’ Dry adapted for the screen by the people who brought you Four Weddings and a Funeral, or Days of Wine and Roses re-imagined by Nick Hornby."

The Rod Hall Agency, the London firm who have been behind such great movies as Billy Elliot, The Full Monty and Mrs Brown, is looking film and TV rights. Please contact charlotte@rodhallagency.com or 020 7079 7987.

I’ll also be your friend forever if you buy one of my books, which you can do from bookshops or online at www.amazon.co.uk (if you’re in America, you can get the American version of Stag by clicking here.