Tim Cawkwell

Tim Cawkwell was born in Oxford in 1948, and completed his studies in Latin, Greek and Ancient History at the University there in 1970. He received another education - parallel, unofficial - in the cinema, and has been watching films ever since. Between 1968 and 1987, he made films, first in 8mm then in 16mm, specializing in working directly on the film frame. In 2018 he made a dvd available LIGHT YEARS: FILM DIARIES 1968 TO 1987: a revised digital version of his 8mm film diaries from that period (available through LUX in London).

He has had a career first in publishing, then in the voluntary sector, ending up as chief administrative officer (a lay position) at Norwich Cathedral. He was involved in the publication of 'The World Encyclopaedia of Film' in 1972, and published 'The Filmgoer's Guide to God' in 2004. He started self-publishing around 2010 under the imprint Sforzinda Books.

'A NEW ZEALANDER IN OXFORD: GEORGE CAWKWELL IN HIS OWN WORDS' was published in September 2022. George was Tim's father, and a noted Ancient Historian at Oxford University. On his death in February 2019, a number of non-classical writings came to light which Tim has edited into a substantial book - not a biography but a way of making vivid various aspects of his personality, through interviews, letters, addresses etcetera. 300 pages long, paperback and digital versions available.

FILM

THE NEW FILMGOER'S GUIDE TO GOD came out in 2014. This book explores the way religious themes such as redemption, sacrifice, atonement etc. recur in films from Europe, the USA and Russia, producing a number of masterpieces. Central figures are Bresson, Dreyer, Tarkovsky, Rossellini and Kieslowski.

FILM PAST FILM FUTURE (2011) was his first digital book, revised and relaunched as a paperback in 2019.

He maintains a website for his writing on the cinema, www.timcawkwell.co.uk.

POETRY

The lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 provided isolation and peace - perfect conditions for writing verse. The results were threefold: INFELICITIES: POEMS IN THE AGE OF DECLINISM (2020, 48 pages); secondly IN THESE TORRID TIMES (2021, 60 pages); and third a poetry pamphlet THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR SQUARE (2021, 22 pages).

BITTERING NORFOLK: LOST AND FOUND

One of his most popular books has been an interview with Joan Norton about an obscure corner of the universe called Bittering in Norfolk where she was brought up in the 1940s and 50s.

TRAVEL

In February 2013 he published FROM NEURALGISTAN TO THE ELATED KINGDOM, a different kind of travel book about a visit to Sicily in 2012. While it gives impressions of visits to some of Sicily's famous sites, such as Monreale, Palermo, Segesta, Trapani, Scopello, these encounters prompt wider reflections on the pleasures to be found in history, on the torments of the mafia presence, on the idea of the Englishman abroad, and on Sicily as an 'island of the mind'. Illustrated with a number of his photographs.

In November 2013 he published a short essay, BETWEEN WEE FREE AND WI FI: SCOTLAND AND THE UK BELONG TOGETHER, SURELY? A pilgrimage to the Scottish-island mecca of the Outer Hebrides prompted a series of reflections on how even this far-flung corner of the UK is connected to the rest of it by culture, by geography and by history. Illustrated with a number of his photographs.

A TIVOLI COMPANION: HISTORY AND GARDENS was published in July 2015, an essay about the Italian hill-town of Tivoli near Rome, famous for its gardens, especially that of the Villa d'Este, and for three millennia of history. Illustrated with the author's photographs.

CRICKET

In 2016 he started publishing books on the game of cricket. CRICKET'S PURE PLEASURE: THE STORY OF AN EXTRAORDINARY MATCH - MIDDLESEX V. YORKSHIRE, SEPTEMBER 2015 was described by Sir John Major as "a wonderful record of a truly remarkable match". Besides giving an account of the game, it contains 65 evocative photographs.

His second cricket book is THE TALE OF TWO TERRIERS AND THE SOMERSET CAT: THE SCRAP FOR CRICKET'S COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP 2016 BETWEEN MIDDLESEX & SOMERSET & YORKSHIRE. It starts in Taunton in August 2016, and follows the twists and turns of the championship for the next two months right up to a dramatic climax on 23rd September, including an intriguing detour to Italy. Contains sixty photographs.

The third is COMPLEAT CRICKET: 8 DAYS IN SEPTEMBER about the battle between five teams in the last two rounds of the County Championship to avoid relegation: eight days of intense battling to score runs, take wickets and hold catches.

The fourth is more substantial: CRICKET ON THE EDGE 2019 is an account of a very big year for England cricket: the winning of the World Cup; a pulsating Ashes series; slow cricket galore in the form of an exciting county championship; a dazzling Blast campaign - and Ben Stokes's 135 not out, one of the great innings in the history of the game. Plus, not least, THE YEAR OF 'THE HUNDRED' WAR, the controversy surrounding the new short form of the game being introduced in the UK. 216 pages, 76,000 words, 36 illustrations.