Guy Lochhead, 08/09/10
Australian novelist and short story writer. Winton’s work is characterised by an awareness of the environment, and how this relates to social life in coastal Australia. He has twice been nominated for the Booker prize. He is a private Christian man who only enters the public eye to promote a book or as part of the Australian environmental movement. Winton is an admirable man in many ways, but I don’t get any excitement from reading about his life or his books. I feel as though he’s probably a really nice person and whatever, but I don’t ‘get’ his books. I don’t understand the fuss about sea metaphors and – worse – surfing metaphors. It’s played out, and has been done better before, when the sea was even more dangerous and mysterious. Plus, he’s a lamb. A lamb of God.