image of person or book cover 4850364979109263192.jpg
Cover image courtesy of publisher.
y separately published work icon The Boy Behind the Curtain selected work   autobiography   essay  
Issue Details: First known date: 2016... 2016 The Boy Behind the Curtain
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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

    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 2016 .
      image of person or book cover 4850364979109263192.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 320p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 3 October 2016
      ISBN: 9781926428765
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Picador ,
      2017 .
      image of person or book cover 6742241667407892750.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 320p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 5 April 2017
      ISBN: 9781509816941
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 2017 .
      image of person or book cover 1236806362231536092.jpg
      This image has been sourced from Booktopia
      Extent: 320p.
      Note/s:
      • Published August 2017
      ISBN: 9780143785996

Other Formats

  • Also sound recording.

Works about this Work

y separately published work icon The Boy Behind the Curtain : Student Book Emily Bosco , Anthony Bosco , Kira Bryant , Gladesville : Into English , 2022 24870802 2022 single work criticism

'This student book is a study of the prescribed essays of Tim Winton from his collection The Boy Behind the Curtain, along with a variety of other poems, prose fiction, and non-fiction texts. It has been designed to fulfil the requirements of the NSW Stage 6 English Year 12 Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences.

'By engaging in close reading of:

  1. ‘Havoc: A Life in Accidents’

  2. ‘Betsy’’

  3. ‘Twice on Sundays’

  4. ‘The Wait and the Flow’

  5. ‘In the Shadow of the Hospital’

  6. ‘The Demon Shark’

  7. ‘Barefoot in the Temple of Art’

(Publication summary)

Tim Winton, Helen Garner, Paul Keating, Deng Adut : The Stories behind the Year's Best Biographies Tim Winton , Deng Adut , Bernadette Brennan , Joan Healy , Judith Brett , Troy Bramston , 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 Katherine J. Mulcrone , 2017 single work review
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 31 no. 2 2017; (p. 451-452)

— Review of The Boy Behind the Curtain Tim Winton , 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 Geoffrey Wells , 2017 single work correspondence
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , January-February no. 388 2017; (p. 5)
Topography of Accidents : Luminous Essays from Tim Winton Peter Craven , 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)
Opening the Book on a Writer's Backstories Malcolm Knox , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 8-9 October 2016; (p. 20)

— Review of The Boy Behind the Curtain Tim Winton , 2016 selected work autobiography essay
Opening the Door on a Writer's Inspiration Malcolm Knox , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 8-9 October 2016; (p. 26)

— Review of The Boy Behind the Curtain Tim Winton , 2016 selected work autobiography essay
Skin to Skin Ashley Hay , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 15-16 October 2016; (p. 20)

— Review of The Boy Behind the Curtain Tim Winton , 2016 selected work autobiography essay
Tim Winton on Class and Neoliberalism : 'We're Not Citizens but Economic Players' Stephanie Honor Convery , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 14 October 2016;

— Review of The Boy Behind the Curtain Tim Winton , 2016 selected work autobiography essay
Bookmark This : From Fielding to Feminism – October's Literary Highlights Stephanie Honor Convery , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 8 October 2016;

— Review of The Boy Behind the Curtain Tim Winton , 2016 selected work autobiography essay ; Goodwood Holly Throsby , 2016 single work novel
Turning Reflective, Winton Pulls Curtain Aside to Reveal His Gun Obsession Stephen Romei , 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 William Yeoman , 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 Peter Craven , 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 Geoffrey Wells , 2017 single work correspondence
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , January-February no. 388 2017; (p. 5)
Last amended 19 Jan 2023 12:11:00
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