Before commencing his writing career, Timlin worked in a variety of jobs such as being a roadie for rock groups including T Rex and The Who, running a Clapham Junction music venue, minicab driver, and proprietor of a skateboard company. In 1985 he was unemployed and living in a friend's abandoned bus. Turning to writing as a way out of living on benefits, he wrote his first novel, A Good Year for the Roses, which was published as a paperback original in 1988. The Sharman series is now in double figures; in early years, Timlin published prolifically. Almost all of the Sharman books carry titles which are taken from songs.
