Tim Bowden has an enviable reputation as broadcaster and author. A household name through his long-running ABC-TV viewer reaction program Backchat, all his books have been best sellers, from his first-war related Changi Photographer and One Crowded Hour, to reminiscence and history with The Way My Father Tells It and The Silence Calling. More recently he has written travel books in his on-going Penelope series, and his autobiography Spooling Through - An Irreverent Memoir, was published in 2003.Tim Bowden was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in November 2002. In 2003, he broadcast a series of five radio programs on the ABC's Health Report tracking his progress in understanding and coming to terms with diabetes. That led to a wider examination of diabetes in Australia, with his latest book This can't happen to me!: Tackling Type 2 diabetes, published in July 2004.