iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 19/09/2026

Flashback to 2013 for no reason. Me and my many chins playing the drums with Macaroni Penguins at the Kingswood Village Hall.

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 18/09/2026

By all means feel free to file this under "no one cares except you, Tim" but I broke the truss rod cover on my SE Silver Sky so I printed a new one... but in the shape of the cover on the full-fat American model. It feels deliciously naughty.

A photo of the headstock of a PRS SE Silver Sky showing the replacement truss rod cover. It's less interesting than you might hope.

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 12/08/2026

The next Lady Hardcastle book, The Quarry Mystery, is available for pre-order on your local version of Amazon. eBook, paperback and audiobook - 19 January 2027. Murder, quarries, dinosaurs – all the usual stuff. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0H5RQNLBG

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 26/05/2026

You know that book I've been telling you about? Murder on the Rocks? It's out today. I just thought I'd mention it.

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 18/05/2026

Murder on the Rocks - coming next week

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 01/04/2026

My copies of 'Murder on the Rocks' arrived today. I shot an unboxing video (it's the law or something) but, as usual, it was utterly ghastly. Here, instead, is a still image of the book on my desk. Murder on the Rocks - all formats, all territories - 26 May 2026

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 14/01/2026

I’ve just noticed that we have a cover for Murder on the Rocks. All formats, all territories, 26 May 2026 www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DZBMMHVZ www.amazon.com/dp/B0DZBMMHVZ etc

A book cover. The title is Murder on the Rocks, the author T E Kinsey. Within the usual ‘tree’ border Lady Hardcastle and Flo stand on an island with a Tudor fort atop a hill in the distance. The sky is menacing and the sea is beginning to get a little rough. The ‘corner objects’ are an Edwardian goblet and a violin.

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 20/12/2025

I forgot to mention the Christmas book. You've see it before, but we have Christmas every year now, so... you know...

A Kindle showing the "Christmas at The Grange" cover. There's a pearl pendant on a gold chain draped over the kindle. There are three "Christmas at The Grange" baubles on the ground in front of it. Everything is standing in the snow. It's all CGI.

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 15/12/2025

Getting in early because I'm already winding down for my Christmas break. Thanks for another great year.  No matter what you believe, have a fantastic time over the festive season. Merry Christmas.

The usual Blender 3D pic of a home library filled with T E Kinsey books. There’s a big blue armchair on one corner and a Christmas tree on the other. There are piles of books on the floor and ornaments on white, wooden blocks between the bookcases. The whole thing has been passed through a filter to make it look like a watercolour painting. White text at the bottom reads, “Wishing You a Hardcastle Christmas”.

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 10/12/2025

There's an anniversary today

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 07/12/2025

Lego Lando is thrilled to be World Champion #F1

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 03/12/2025

Met a nice fella not far from Hyde Park Corner

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 22/11/2025

I know I complain about this every year when Strictly is on, but I'm not allowed to complain about it in the house. And I shouldn't go on about it, but I always imagine Rex Harrison singing, "Why Can't the English Teach Their Children How to Clap?"

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 18/11/2025

I *know* it's a long way off, but I'll be at HNS 2026 in Maynooth, Ireland, next year with @pamlecky.bsky.social and Fiona Veitch Smith. The conference runs 21-23 Aug (our panel date TBA).

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 17/11/2025

Every once in a while I get an email telling me that there’s a UPS parcel on its way from Michigan. They’re usually translated editions of Hardcastles and they’re always a joy. Pretty sure I already have the French one somewhere, but the ‘mass market paperback’ of the German one is new to me.

A photograph of two paperback books on a white desk. The corner of a Mac keyboard is visible on the left and an iPad Mini at the top. The paperbacks are of different sizes. The larger is the French translation of Lady Hardcastle - Book 9 (An Act of Foul Play) and is entitled «Meurtre en trois actes». The smaller is the mass market paperback of the German translation of the first Hardcastle book (A Quiet Life in the Country) and is “Lady Hardcastle Und Der Tote Im Wald”.

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 17/11/2025

I’m one of the “people of a certain age...” - he visited my primary school more than once. I clearly recall him demonstrating a tam-tam and explaining that he used it to provide the sound of the gong in the J Arthur Rank film ident. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...

theguardian.com

‘Two more broomsticks please!’ Was Robin Blades the greatest percussionist ever?

He played china mugs, bells, rattles and car horns for everyone from Alfred Hitchcock to Benjamin Britten – and once got Laurence Olivier to bang a broomstick. We go behind the scenes of a Radio 3 cel...

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 10/11/2025

I hope @mwcraven.bsky.social and @vaseemkhanuk.bsky.social have been given these. (I had to buy mine, obviously.)

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 29/10/2025

If you dropped all the Lady Hardcastle books on a studio floor it wouldn’t look like this because there are only twelve of them and this image uses 2,000 virtual books. But they were ‘dropped’ in a fun physics simulation in Blender because I should be working.

A white floor covered with an untidy pile of paperback books - all Hardcastles by T E Kinsey. It’s CGI, created in Blender. It isn’t AI because that wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun to do.

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 28/10/2025

I might be a drummer, but I have a fondness for guitars and I’m working hard at learning some proper technique. I picked up the beautiful instrument at the front from Andertons yesterday.

In a cluttered corner of a room with IKEA shelves behind and a cymbal stand to one side, there are two electric guitars on stands. The rearmost is a PRS SE Silver Sky in Nylon Blue with a maple neck. In front stands a PRS SE McCarty 594 Single Cut in Vintage Sunburst.

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 26/10/2025

It’s at about this time every year when I suddenly remember that, yes, actually, I do have a book with witches in it. In a sort of a way. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07D4G28KY/

A 3D CGI image created in Blender, framed in the style of a Hardcastle cover. A mist shrouded forest with spooky light struggling to shine through the trees. In the foreground is a swing (it’s a long story) with a carved pumpkin lantern illuminating a paperback copy of A Picture of Murder. The caption says, "Movies and murder. And possibly witches."

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 16/10/2025

I have a couple of quadcopters ("drones"). I like to keep the batteries in decent condition and when I charge them up I sometimes take them out for a quick test run to make sure everything is still working. Today I tried to sneak up on a couple of pigeons but they were too wily for me.

An overgrown corner of a garden. There’s a bird bath with moss on the base. A pole supporting two bird feeders. Two pigeons are caught mid-flight, their wings a blur, escaping the (unseen to us) unfamiliar flying object and its whiny rotors.

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 07/10/2025

This was Eddie's shot at fame in 2016:

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 04/10/2025

Regular viewers might remember Eddie, my faithful Muppet Whatnot. His pleather jacket was falling to pieces, so while we were away, our daughter (who was housesitting) crocheted him a new cardigan.

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 02/10/2025

I neglected to mention that we got from Banff to Vancouver on the Rocky Mountaineer…

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 01/10/2025

My wife says she doesn’t want to use the stairs - THEY’RE ON FIRE

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 01/10/2025

Finally, Vancouver... with added killer whales...

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 24/09/2025

Book 3 - Death Around the Bend currently available at the Calgary Central Library

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 20/09/2025

In early 2017 I’d never heard the word chondrosarcoma. Thanks to the sort of research funded by Sarcoma UK I’m still alive to tell you that.

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 18/09/2025

Very much enjoying Old Québec. It’s like someone took France home and gave it a jolly good wash.

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 17/09/2025

Et maintenant, Québec

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 14/09/2025

I’m not completely sure where we are

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 11/09/2025

We find ourselves at Toronto

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 24/08/2025

Name 5 Albums that had the biggest effect on your life: Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy - Billy Bragg Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd The Kids Are Alright - The Who The Rutles - The Rutles Briefcase Full of Blues - The Blues Brothers

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 22/08/2025

It's Friday afternoon on the last Bank Holiday weekend until Christmas. Time to #DownTools and indulge. Just give me a steel [strung] guitar and a glass of wine...

A photograph of a white desk with the usual office junk. In the foreground is the headstock and neck of a PRS Silversky SE guitar on a stand (the rest of the guitar is out of shot). On the desk is a large wine glass containing red wine.

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 17/08/2025

It's a book nook. But it's made of Lego. And it's Sherlock Holmes. I couldn't ask for more.

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 14/08/2025

We find ourselves once more at London

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 11/08/2025

I only ever write THE END so I can screenshot it - it never appears in the actual manuscript. Nevertheless, I have this day submitted the first draft of Lady Hardcastle - Book 13.

A screenshot of a Scrivener document entitled “LH13 v1”. The central pane simply has the words "THE END” typed near the top in white against a dark grey background.

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 09/08/2025

It's always seemed a bit artificial to me when foley artists add a zing whenever someone draws a blade in a film. But then we got a new knife block...

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 02/08/2025

I was thinking back to my days in 4th Year Juniors at primary school when I played bass guitar in the school orchestra. I looked through old Argos catalogues and found this, which I believe is the instrument I played. It’s a 3/4 scale bass bought by the school from Argos in around 1973 or ’74.

Composite photo showing a product shot from the Argos catalogue 1973/4. Cropped to show an electric bass guitar leaning against an electronic organ. The bass is 3/4 scale and finished in tobacco burst with a white pick guard.
Also in the composite is the listing for the item which reads: 18. DALLAS ARBITER Solid Electric Bass Guitar. 2 pick-ups. 4 strings. Amplifier lead included. (Japan). Catalogue Number 540/0045. Recommended Retail £25.37. Argos Price £19.95

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 29/07/2025

Meanwhile in 2008 at the Upton Snodsbury Music Festival...

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 26/07/2025

I mean… just take my money…

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Tim Kinsey @tekinsey.uk · 22/07/2025

For anyone who wondered about my badger pin this weekend, these are three of the visiting badgers. "You want to try mowing the f$%&ing orchard."

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