Timothy Tapper
Timothy Tapper is an unpublished writer currently studying for a BA (hons) in Creative Writing at Birkbeck University. He is a chef by trade but is currently unemployed, and lives in Shepherds Bush with his wife and two children. Timothy has had previous agency representation for a novel of literary fiction, but it failed to sell. He has just completed a book of short stories entitled Mind Forged Manacles, from which the story ‘Tag’ is taken. ‘Tag’ is his first story to be published with Fairlight Books.
Q: If you could travel back in time, which of the great writers would you like to meet and why?
A: Ooooh, it’s a toss-up between Dostoyevsky, Samuel Beckett and William Faulkner. I’ll go for Dostoyevsky, just to see if I could tease out the radical, anarchic philosopher from the conservative Catholic.
Q: Do you have a lucky writing talisman? If so, what is it?
A: Sadly no. Maybe that’s what I’ve been doing wrong for all these years.
Q: Do you have a favourite quote? (From a book, film, song, speech…)
A: ‘Why must you tell me all your secrets when it’s hard enough to love you knowing nothing?’ Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. Four Flights Up.
Q: What is the least interesting part of writing for you?
A: Fear of failure.
Q: If you could teleport yourself anywhere, real or fictional, where would it be and why?
A: Paris, 1920s. Because it would be a hoot. Slap bang in the middle of surrealism, absurdism, Beckett, Miller, Joyce etc. etc.
Q: Who is your personal inspiration?
A: Joe Orton. An uneducated, working-class lad, who, by hook or by crook, wrenched himself out of the gutter and made words shine like a knife.
