[1] Initially championed by Martin Bax at Ambit, novelist Nicholas Royle and 3:AM Magazine's Andrew Gallix, he was considered a central member of the short-lived Offbeat generation[2] His collection of short fiction, The Swank Bisexual Wine Bar of Modernity (2007), became an instant underground classic on its release[3] and earned Tinker cult author status.

"If HP Tinker didn't exist, you'd have to make him up... he is as influenced as much by Woody Allen, Dr. Seuss and Morrissey as he is by William Burroughs and Joe Orton.

As one of the brave ones — and one of Britain's most shameless writers — HP Tinker has been peddling his own brand of surrealism for years now, in stories littered with pop cultural references where you are likely to meet Dorothy Parker, Tom Paulin, Paul Gauguin as you are Dean Martin and Morrissey."

Author Lee Rourke devoted a chapter to HP Tinker in A Brief History of Fables, describing his work as “a grand symphony of intertextuality, tomfoolery and theoretical intent”.

In his review, the novelist David Rose commented, "John Ashbery described the late Lee Harwood as Britain’s best-kept secret; H.P.