AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'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.' (Publication summary)
Notes
-
Dedication: For Mum and Dad
-
Epigraph: Nothing's said till it's dreamed out in words and nothing's true that figures in words only. - Les Murray 'Poetry and Religion'
-
After accepting the Adelaide Festival Award for Literature for this work, Winton announced that he would donate the $15,000 prize money to the campaign to save Ningaloo Reef.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
Tim Winton, Helen Garner, Paul Keating, Deng Adut : The Stories behind the Year's Best Biographies
2018
single work
column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 12 July 2018;'Six authors nominated for the National Biography awards reveal what most surprised them about their subjects.' (Publication abstract)
-
Winton Maintains Mystique behind the Curtain/The Boy behind the Curtain
2017
single work
review
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 31 no. 2 2017; (p. 451-452)
— Review of The Boy Behind the Curtain 2016 selected work autobiography essay'In light of the carnage that lone gunmen have wrought in the United States over the past twenty years, this revelation is chilling and difficult to reconcile with the midfifties grandfather who confidently leaves the National Gallery of Victoria in the collection's final essay, "like a man in boots" (296). While the subsequent two essays find their starting points in Winton's early life- being taken to see Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey by a hapless but well-intentioned friend's mother for said friend's eighth birthday, and a meditation on how "havoc" has shaped his life (particularly his father's catastrophic motorcycle accident when Winton was five)-they also defy easy taxonomy. Winton's passion for Australia as a repository for biodiversity and his commitment to its protection from itself, especially in light of the ugly fact that "Australia has the worst record of mammal extinction in the world" (64), is evident; a number of the essays chronicle various environmental campaigns in which he has fought or whose victory he has celebrated.' (Publication abstract)
-
Tissues on the Sofa
2017
single work
correspondence
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , January-February no. 388 2017; (p. 5) -
Topography of Accidents : Luminous Essays from Tim Winton
2016
single work
review
essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 387 2016; (p. 11,13) Everybody thinks they know about Tim Winton: the working-class hero from the West; the whale of a man who’s been writing since he was a boy; the master of one of those big Australian prose styles that is muscular and magnetic and sometimes just a bit too self-delighting; someone who straddles the literary and the popular like a colossus. (Introduction) -
Faith and Humanism behind Tim Winton's Curtain
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Eureka Street , 23 October vol. 26 no. 21 2016;
— Review of The Boy Behind the Curtain 2016 selected work autobiography essay
-
Opening the Book on a Writer's Backstories
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 8-9 October 2016; (p. 20)
— Review of The Boy Behind the Curtain 2016 selected work autobiography essay -
Opening the Door on a Writer's Inspiration
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 8-9 October 2016; (p. 26)
— Review of The Boy Behind the Curtain 2016 selected work autobiography essay -
Skin to Skin
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 15-16 October 2016; (p. 20)
— Review of The Boy Behind the Curtain 2016 selected work autobiography essay -
Tim Winton on Class and Neoliberalism : 'We're Not Citizens but Economic Players'
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 14 October 2016;
— Review of The Boy Behind the Curtain 2016 selected work autobiography essay -
Bookmark This : From Fielding to Feminism – October's Literary Highlights
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 8 October 2016;
— Review of The Boy Behind the Curtain 2016 selected work autobiography essay ; Goodwood 2016 single work novel -
Turning Reflective, Winton Pulls Curtain Aside to Reveal His Gun Obsession
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 24-25 September 2016; (p. 2) -
Personal Detour
Stephen Romei
(interviewer),
2016
single work
interview
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 24-25 September 2016; (p. 16) -
Winton Revealed
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: The West Australian , 11 October 2016; (p. 1, 10) 'The author tells William Yeoman non-fiction is not his forte but his new collection of essays shows otherwise.' -
Topography of Accidents : Luminous Essays from Tim Winton
2016
single work
review
essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 387 2016; (p. 11,13) Everybody thinks they know about Tim Winton: the working-class hero from the West; the whale of a man who’s been writing since he was a boy; the master of one of those big Australian prose styles that is muscular and magnetic and sometimes just a bit too self-delighting; someone who straddles the literary and the popular like a colossus. (Introduction) -
Tissues on the Sofa
2017
single work
correspondence
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , January-February no. 388 2017; (p. 5)
Awards
- 2018 shortlisted National Biography Award
- 2018 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction
- 2018 winner Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature — Award for Non-Fiction
- 2017 longlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian Biography of the Year
- 2017 longlisted Indie Awards — Nonfiction