Journalist Tim Dowling was born in Connecticut and moved to the UK at the age of 29. He is the author of 4 books (so far) including a novel, ‘The Giles Wareing Haters' Club’. For the last five and a half years his popular weekly Guardian column has charted the ups and downs of family life, and his largely unsuccessful attempts to be recognised as a competent father and husband, combining self-deprecating humour with a perverse optimism.