Looking for Wind in the Fields

Looking for Wind in the Fields unfolds an epic tale of resilience and the stark injustice of war, tracing the harrowing journey from the besieged city of Leningrad, through the unforgiving expanses of Siberia, to the serene yet foreign landscapes of Tasmania.

Amidst the backdrop of the siege of Leningrad, two young children, orphaned and vulnerable, find their fates intertwined with a valiant friend whose boundless courage and sacrifice guide them through the darkest chapters of human cruelty.

Their odyssey of survival takes them from the brutal labour camps of Siberia, across the devastated post-war Eastern Europe, and finally, as displaced refugees, to an unexpected sanctuary on the other side of the world.

This narrative is not only a testament to the indomitable spirit of those who face the unimaginable but also a profound reflection on the themes of loss, displacement, and the quest for renewal.

Born in Adelaide in 1961 into a family of actors, Tim had an early introduction to the power of words via the stage and the literature that lined the bookshelves of the living room. The uniquely progressive government of the 1970s encouraged creative expression which Tim explored through drawing and reading the giants of Russian and French literature and working backwards to the classical masters of Homer and Herodotus then the works of Virgil and Dante, firing his imagination as the impressionable teenager he was. Having left Adelaide in 1984 to settle in Sydney he worked at the Sydney Opera House for 25 years in live theatre, toying with poetry and novelistic scenarios all the while. Moving to Tasmania in 2014 he was convinced plunged him into a melancholia which conversely inspired him to pen, over five years the novel we have before us today.