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Tim X Atack

@timatack.bsky.social

writer | composer | stuff | Bristol UK | campsite.bio/txa FATHER ALBERTO AND THE FLYING GIRL Chatto & Windus June 26 / FOREST 404 on BBC Sounds / Bruntwood Prize Winner / Stories about love, ghosts, belonging and not, getting things wrong, and hope

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Tim X Atack@timatack.bsky.social · 10mo ago

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.

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."
Tim X Atack@timatack.bsky.social · last yr.

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.

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.
Tim X Atack@timatack.bsky.social · last yr.

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.'

Nina Markl 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈@ninamarkl.bsky.social · last yr.

i've written a blog post about why I think we should reject generative AI in the university: languagemechanics.neocities.org/no-gen-ai

Tim X Atack@timatack.bsky.social · 2y ago

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.