Tim Free is a freelance actor living and working in London.
In addition to stage and television work he has a wide range of experience in first-person historical interpretation. Roles have included performing in the Second World War cruiser HMS Belfast where he was part of a company employed to write, devise and act in scripts about the ship’s actions in the Arctic convoys, on D-Day and during the Korean War.
This in turn informed his recent writing with particular reference to social history and the Mass Observation Movement. Keeping a journal-style account of observations in his everyday life, he has amassed a number of notebooks with material that juxtapose a subjective and objective critique of events and social behaviours in both an urban and rural settings.The reporting of these observations can take several forms including making notes at source, at other times written in a notepad (often in shorthand) before being logged in a journal. These observations often display a playful nature, employing a degree of humour, asking questions or merely recalling fragments of overheard conversation.
Applying a title to each observation is a fundamental part of ‘framing’ the text, perhaps evolving as a creative process borne out of penning lyrics (and song titles) for the various bands he has played in. The content of the observation is almost always a spontaneous piece of writing sometimes reflected in the short abbreviated sentence structure. As subject matter is often surveyed ‘in transit’ he finds it important to try and capture the essence of the event, thereby giving the material a vitality that might lend itself to later reading and interpretation.
The Timelapse Project 
Hi,Tim: When I first time met you just near by London bridge during lunch time in April. It was nice weather and have great talk with you. Thank you for inspiring me about live and love. Thank you.
Hi Fiona, That’s kind of you. How’s things?
Hello Tim,
I’m the French student from La Rochelle who is doing a survey about tea. We met us in the Churchill War Room next week.
Your work is very nice. You are a good writer and this collaboration is excellent.
I just wanted to send you my blog about tea and my e-mail adresse to stay in contact. Have a look in http://www.capontea.jimdo.com 🙂
Thank you again for your time and your help, it was a really nice discussion.
Good evening. Nice to hear from you. I really like your work. Let’s have a ‘brew’ sometime!
Hi Tim,
I’m the Indonesian student from St Andrews; we talked a bit last Sunday in IWM London – I didn’t get to stay in the museum for long last time, so I’m definitely going to visit again (hopefully soon!). Albeit brief, I had a really good time in the museum, so I’ll definitely come again next time I visit London. Perhaps you can even show me HMS Belfast too.
Thank you for your talk and your enthusiasm, it definitely piqued my interest in naval history. It certainly inspired me to be passionate in my work. I hope I get to talk to you about your collaboration too sometime, it looks great!
Best,
Evelyn
Evelyn,
Good evening. Thanks for your nice comments. It was good to meet you too and I hope we can see each other again soon.
Tim
* Look forward to learning about Indonesia!