Tim X Atack

A screengrab from The Bookseller Website, with the headline "Chatto & Windus buys Timothy X Atack's debut novel that 'explores the treatment of madness'" above a vaguely smiling picture of Tim X Atack (a bald and ginger-bearded white man in his 50s.)

A screengrab of part of an article in The Bookseller that reads: "Chatto & Windus will publish the distinctive first novel from playwright and composer Timothy X Atack, Father Alberto and the Flying Girl. Rosanna Hildyard, assistant editor, and Kaiya Shang, senior commissioning editor, acquired world all-language rights from Rachel Goldblatt at Curtis Brown. The publisher described the book, which will be published in June 2026, as “a historical novel with a modern heart that explores the treatment of madness in a fictional medieval village”. Set in the backwater parish of Saint Particular, somewhere in Europe around the time of Leonardo da Vinci, the novel follows idealistic young priest Alberto. Arriving at a new job, Alberto is given the task of caring for the parish’s insane and mentally ill, kept in prison for the ‘sin’ of madness. Among them: a child who does not speak and insists on trying to fly. Alberto soon becomes convinced that there is a better way to care for his tortured charges and enters into a bitter conflict with his superior, the ferocious Abbess, whose religious views are somewhat more extreme. But when the Abbess calls the terrifying Inferrant Brethren, Alberto must face up to his own history."

A screengrab of part of an article from The Bookseller that reads: "The author said: “It’s one thing to write a medieval tale that’s really about the denigration of care in our modern world; quite another to find a publishing team who so completely believe in your labour of love and want to make it fly. I’m ridiculously excited for this book to meet the world and overjoyed to be working with such skilled and intelligent folks at Chatto & Windus, Vintage and Curtis Brown.” Hildyard and Shang said: “This is a novel about being brave enough to stand for something within a society that does not care. Though its characters are medieval men and women, it could not have a more timely message. Timothy’s writing is reminiscent of Angela Carter and Umberto Eco, but it’s fiercely original – the voice of the inimitable dreamer Alberto is one you will not forget.” X Atack is a writer, composer and sound designer. He is the author of the play Delay (Bristol Old Vic, 2025); the podcast series Forest 404 (BBC Radio 4), which won the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain and ARIA awards for Best Audio Drama 2020; the play Heartworm, winner of the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2017; and the short film All My Dreams on VHS (BBC Film Lab, 2009) among other audio dramas. He also composed the music for the 2022 BBC radio adaptation of Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi (Bloomsbury). He is from Yorkshire originally, grew up in Rio de Janeiro and currently lives in Bristol."

I think it's said "novelist (watch this space)" on my profile ever since I created this account. Here's why...

FATHER ALBERTO AND THE FLYING GIRL, June 2026, Chatto & Windus.

20.10.2025 15:21 — 👍 5    🔁 0    💬 3    📌 1

Thanks Steve! If you follow me back I reckon I can message a response... : > )

26.06.2025 16:55 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Science-fiction to break your heart Timothy X Atack and Tanuja Amarasuriya on love stories, genre fiction, ghosts, tapes... and why theatres should embrace nerds

“I’m just writing fan fiction all the time, basically”

Ahead of their new queer sci-fi heartbreaker DELAY opening at Bristol Old Vic, Sleepdogs - aka Timothy X Atack (@timatack.bsky.social) and Tanuja Amarasuriya - chat to Ben Kulvichit

13.06.2025 11:36 — 👍 5    🔁 5    💬 0    📌 0

A card that reads CAST ANNOUNCEMENT for DELAY at Bristol Old Vic. Jyuddah James face is in profile, looking downward, against an image of a purple and pink nebula.

Three profile pictures: Left, Jyuddah James, a black man in his 20s, as Lin. Centre, Alex Lawther, a white man in his 30s, as the voice of Silas. Right, Vera Chok, an east asian heritage woman in her 40s, as Auto.

Cast just announced for DELAY, a queer sci-fi heartbreaker I've written, on at Bristol Old Vic in June...
JYUDDAH JAMES is playing Lin.
ALEX LAWTHER as the voice of Silas.
VERA CHOK as the voice of Auto.

23.05.2025 12:23 — 👍 16    🔁 4    💬 1    📌 1

AI doesn’t care about authors, but Meta should | Letters Letters: Timothy X Atack thinks AI models are imitation engines – and they do not celebrate their sources, they conceal them. Abie Longstaff says Meta has stolen far more books than any author could r...

Wrote a letter in the Guardian -- responding to another letter on authors and AI...

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

10.04.2025 08:38 — 👍 6    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Foreground, a tablet with text, author's POV. Background: the nave of Durham cathedral, with renovation work on a scaffold in front of the quire.

The transept at Durham Cathedral, with a strangely theatrical renovation in progress on a well-lit scaffold.

A photo taken from below of the Transfiguration Window at Durham Cathedral -- a modern stained glass artwork by Tom Denny, with vivid blue, red and orange panels, and almost impressionist figures in biblical scenes as well as images from Durham's history.

Editing my novel today, so I found a themed office space.

13.03.2025 19:25 — 👍 6    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

This is so so good -- one of the most concise, cogent, and useful takes I've read on what we're currently calling generative AI.

And so much of it resonates with the misuse of AI in the artistic world, too. 'Devaluing that which has already been devalued.'

04.03.2025 13:08 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

A white baby grand piano in a roadside cafe in Sri Lanka – on top of which is a printed sign saying 'Refrain from playing the piano'.

I've written some more on 'being a caring artist in a capitalist world', if anyone fancies some light cogitation of a Friday.

sleepdogs.org/2025/02/dont...

Stay powerful.

21.02.2025 11:05 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

BBC Radio 4 - Vidya Wade by Timothy X Atack Maya thinks they've got a ghost. Vidya is the only extra-natural mediator she can find.

I've written this week's Book At Bedtime on Radio 4 (a long short story, I suppose.) Also available as a binge listen on BBC Sounds, for the next 5 weeks.

Love and ghosts. Funny, sad, strange, lovely.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

11.02.2025 08:58 — 👍 11    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0

Thank YOU for listening, Kathryn! Really glad you're enjoying it.
: > )

11.02.2025 08:26 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Michael, hello! Thanks for the kind words and the curious question. Any resemblances to the character of K'Anpo are very much coincidental... that said, I like to think the story doesn't prevent any headcanon, were one so inclined... : > )

01.02.2025 15:39 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Flashback to when I was a kid and used every lego brick I had to build an enormous vault with only a single tiny trapdoor on top – so that all the lego people could do was fall into it, without immediate means of retrieval.

Spare a thought for my parents.

20.01.2025 11:26 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Ah, thank you! Glad you enjoyed. It's a great production -- finally got to meet Dan Starkey last week and thank him for his many excellent performances in that one... : > )

14.12.2024 09:15 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Login • Instagram Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.

Have had a bunch of emails from folks asking about the music of mine used on Radio 4's serialisation of ORBITAL by Samantha Harvey. Here's a string ensemble version...

#orbitalsamanthaharvey #bookerprizewinner #bbcradio4 #stringsinspace #newmusic

www.instagram.com/reel/DDXanLS...

09.12.2024 17:32 — 👍 5    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0

sleepdogs _ Don’t Give Up: being a caring artist in a capitalist world

Some Bluesky positivity. After a relentless couple of years for rejections and dead-ends, I've some recent cause for hope. At the darkest moments, I'd begun some stubbornly positive writing about being a creative artist under modern pressures... here's a first salvo:

sleepdogs.org/2024/12/dont...

09.12.2024 15:39 — 👍 6    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 1

A screengrab of a song lyric, which reads: He’s making a list He’s using AI He already knows what presents you’ll buy Santa Claus is hacking your phone He’s rigging your polls With anchoring prompts He’s selling his list to policy wonks Santa Claus is milking your stats He’s scraping all your data He knows when you’re awake He knows what social band you’re in And what helps you masturbate (ho-ho-ho) 
Been gathering dirt Since you were a kid He knows all the nasty shit that you did Santa Claus is Biding his time He’s checked your credit rating He’ll block you if you’re broke He knows if you are naughty And he knows if you are woke So You better not browse You better not swipe You better not tag or follow or like
Santa Claus is tracking every second of your online behaviour for lucrative commercial and/or socio-political opportunities on behalf of his extensive and strictly confidential client base

It's that time of year. You know the tune.

07.12.2024 16:10 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Just got ID'd in M&S Croydon. No joke.

Maybe it's a context thing, that's the only explanation I have.

Anyway. Be careful out there, everyone.

23.11.2024 12:54 — 👍 6    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

If you clicked on this and it was a blank page: 10/10, no notes.

21.11.2024 11:20 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9qW...

... and this entire album, in fact...

16.11.2024 13:31 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0

Screengrab of a short excerpt of a screenplay. It reads: INT. DOUBLE DECKER, TOP FLOOR - DAY GALA is staring out at the grey old city. She sighs, deep -- picks up her phone and taps it. INTERCUT WITH: EXT. CITY STREET - DAY A besuited UMESH is on his way to work. He answers his phone. UMESH Can’t talk long I’m almost in hell. GALA Yeh, same. OK I was thinking we (screengrab ends)

Done many things over the years but have recently begun to settle on this kind of format:

13.11.2024 17:03 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Yes, it's in June next year...

And yes, my first post is self-promotion, how infra dig, I know.

But I reckon this is going to be the real deal.

DELAY at Bristol Old Vic:

bristololdvic.org.uk/whats-on/delay

17.10.2024 14:04 — 👍 9    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0