Tim Bowden remembered

Broadcaster, journalist, oral historian and author Tim Bowden has died, aged 87.

Rebecca Kaiser, Bowden’s publisher across 10 books at Allen & Unwin, writes:

Over the nearly 25 years that we were friends, Tim Bowden regularly began our conversations with the words, ‘Dearest Publisher, I’ve been thinking’. Every sign off was as Timbo. What Timbo was so often thinking about was the next project. There was always another story to be told, another oral history to share, another book to write. And always at the centre of those many books were people. History was nothing without their voices: Antarctic expeditions, prisoners of war, outback eccentrics, larrikin soldiers, journalist adventurers (including himself).

Tim was as human as those he wrote about. He didn’t suffer fools lightly, he harrumphed often and loudly about the ways of our conservative politicians and, despite being a resolute rationalist, he was completely irrational in his dislike of sport that involved any kind of football. But he was also a fine, fair and decent man who kept writing to the end and never lost his fascination with the lived histories of spirited Australians. For that, we thank you, Timbo.

Category: Obituaries