Robert Timothy Dowling (/ˈdaʊlɪŋ/; born June 1963) is an American journalist and author who writes a weekly column in The Guardian about his life with his family in London.

Dowling worked in data entry for a films database before he became a freelance journalist, first working for GQ, then women's magazines and the Independent on Sunday.^[3] He is a columnist for The Guardian and has a weekly column in the paper's Saturday magazine, Weekend. His column replaced Jon Ronson's in 2007. He writes observational columns, often about his wife.^[4] Sam Leith of The Guardian noted that "Dowling's a very fresh and smart writer, as he needs to be. Stories about machete massacres or ebola pandemics pretty much write themselves: writing about nothing much, week in, week out, is the real test."^[5] Dowling also worked as a cartoonist for a short time.^[6]

Dowling's books include a 2001 book about the inventor of the disposable razor, King Camp Gillette,^[7] Suspicious Packages and Extendable Arms, a collection of his writing from The Guardian, and The Giles Wareing Haters' Club, his 2007 debut novel concerning a journalist Googling himself (narcissurfing^[8]) who finds an online club of people who hate him, inspired by Dowling searching for his name online.^[9] Giles Wareing was reviewed by TLS.^[10] Metro said it is "a fine comedy of domestic triviality".^[11]

Dowling said of his 2014 book How to Be a Husband: "It got quite a bit of publicity in the U.K. when it came out and [my wife] wasn't prepared for all that."^[12] Tom Hodgkinson writing in The Spectator called this book "a rare delight".^[13] Leith in The Guardian said there is "pleasure and treasure here."^[5] David Evans wrote in The Independent: "It's a rare thing to be able to write about life as a husband and father in such a way as to elicit nods of recognition among those who are neither of those things; Dowling does it with panache."^[14]

Dowling was born in Connecticut. His mother was a schoolteacher, his father was a dentist, and he has a brother and two sisters.^[3] He moved to the UK from New York at the age of 27 and currently lives in London with his wife Sophie de Brandt^[15][16] and their three sons.^[17] He enjoys skiing with his sons, having learned to ski as a child in the US.^[18]

Dowling has played banjo (which his wife bought for his birthday) in the band Police Dog Hogan^[19][20] since 2009, and he writes self-deprecatingly about their festival gigs, including Glastonbury, in his column.^[21][22][23]