Non-Fiction Books
On childhood holidays to the beach the sun and surf kept Tim Winton outside in the mornings, in the water; the wind would drive him indoors in the afternoons, to books and reading. This ebb and flow of the day became a way of life. In this beautifully delicate memoir, Tim Winton writes about his obsession with what happens where the water meets the shore – about diving, dunes, beachcombing – and the sense of being on the precarious, wondrous edge of things that haunts his novels. Complemented by the breathtaking photographs of Narelle Autio, Land's Edge is a celebration of the coastal life and those who surrender themselves to it.
Startling, wry, lyrical, and beguiling photographs and passionate commentary document the landscape and people of Australia's interior in this panoramic volume. 331 color illustrations.
A dazzling collection of extraordinary Australian landscapes from internationally acclaimed photographer, Richard Woldendorp, accompanied by an engaging essay from Tim Winton, examining his personal responses to the land.
A beautiful, evocative, and sometimes provocative memoir of Australia’s unique landscape, and how that singular place has shaped Tim Winton and his writing. From boyhood, Winton’s relationship with the world around him—rock pools, sea caves, scrub, and swamp—has been as vital as any other connection. Camping in hidden inlets, walking in high rocky desert, diving in reefs, bobbing in the sea between surfing sets, Winton has felt the place seep into him, and learned to see landscape as a living process. In Island Home , Winton brings this landscape—and its influence on the island nation’s identity and art—vividly to life through personal accounts and environmental history. Wise, rhapsodic, exalted—in language as unexpected and wild as the landscape it describes— Island Home is a brilliant, moving portrait of Australia from one of its finest writers. From boyhood, Winton’s relationship with the world around him—rock pools, sea caves, scrub, and swamp—has been as vital as any other connection. Camping in hidden inlets, walking in high rocky desert, diving in reefs, bobbing in the sea between surfing sets, Winton has felt the place seep into him, and learned to see landscape as a living process. In Island Home , Winton brings this landscape—and its influence on the island nation’s identity and art—vividly to life through personal accounts and environmental history. Wise, rhapsodic, exalted—in language as unexpected and wild as the landscape it describes— Island Home is a brilliant, moving portrait of Australia from one of its finest writers.
The remarkable true stories in The Boy Behind the Curtain reveal an intimate and rare view of Tim Winton’s imagination at work and play. A chronicler of sudden turnings, brutal revelations and tender sideswipes, Tim Winton has always been in the business of trouble. In his novels chaos waits in the wings and ordinary people are ambushed by events and emotions beyond their control. But as these extraordinarily powerful memoirs show, the abrupt and the headlong are old familiars to the author himself, for in many ways his has been a life shaped by havoc. In The Boy Behind the Curtain Winton reflects on the accidents, traumatic and serendipitous, that have influenced his view of life and fuelled his distinctive artistic vision. On the unexpected links between car crashes and religious faith, between surfing and writing, and how going to the wrong movie at the age of eight opened him up to a life of the imagination. And in essays on class, fundamentalism, asylum seekers, guns and the natural world he reveals not only the incidents and concerns that have made him the much-loved writer he is, but some of what unites the life and the work. By turns impassioned, funny, joyous, astonishing, this is Winton’s most personal book to date, an insight into the man who’s held us enthralled for three decades and helped us reshape our view of ourselves. Behind it all, from risk-taking youth to surprise-averse middle age, has been the crazy punt of staking everything on becoming a writer.