Tim Robinson

Emerging out of lower middle-class mediocrity and semi-educated during the 1980s at a dismal Fenland comprehensive, Tim nevertheless won a place to study Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Wadham College, Oxford – an opportunity he squandered, like so many others that would follow, through indolence and unjustified conceit.

Still, propelled forward like his characters by an ability to tell plausible lies, he secured a position as a BBC director and producer, making many documentaries. Presenters included Sister Wendy Beckett, Neil MacGregor and Simon Sebag Montefiore. He even once won the EU’s Best Documentary prize for Racism: A Savage Legacy. Other history drama-docs included Zulu: The True Story and Who Killed Joseph Stalin? Since leaving the BBC with an acceptable payoff and largely living as a kept boy, his penchant for indolence reasserted itself.

Finally struggling against ennui and the permanent lethargy of the pampered, he managed to write The Orphans of Hatham Hall. Dividing his time between Camden Town and Andalusia, he lives with an indulgent husband, an indifferent cat and a horribly spoilt Cavalier King Charles Spaniel called Louis.