Sam Vincent

A moving and hilarious fish-out-of-water memoir of a millennial leaving his inner-city life to take over the family farm.Winner, Prime Minister's Literary Award for Nonfiction 2023'My Father and Other Animals is a warm, surprising and beautifully crafted book.' -Billy Griffiths, author of Deep Time DreamingSam Vincent is a twenty-something writer living in the inner suburbs, scrabbling to make ends meet, when he gets a call from his mother: his father has stuck his hand in a woodchipper, but 'not to worry - it wasn't like that scene in Fargo or anything'. When Sam returns to the family farm to help out, his life takes a new and unexpected direction.Whether castrating calves or buying a bull - or knocking in a hundred fence posts by hand when his dad hides the post-driver - Sam's farming apprenticeship is an education in grit and shit. But there are victories, too: nurturing a fig orchard to bloom; learning to read the land; joining forces with Indigenous elders to protect a special site. Slowly, Sam finds himself thinking differently about the farm, about his father and about his relationship with both.By turns affecting, hilarious and utterly surprising, this memoir melds humour and fierce honesty in an unsentimental love letter. It's about belonging, humility and regeneration - of land, family and culture. What passes from father to son on this unruly patch of earth is more than a livelihood; it is a legacy.'Sam Vincent probes deeply into some of the biggest issues of our time ... This book is a celebration of the love of land and builds bridges of understanding that will appeal to a broad cross section of readers.' -Judges' comments, Prime Minister's Literary Awards'My Father and Other Animals is a beautiful tale of legacy, family, and a millennial finding his place in the world.' -Samuel Bernard, The Weekend Australian 'Notable Books''For any reader desiring to understand contemporary rural Australia, this entertaining and important book is a must-read.' -Charles Massy, author of Call of the Reed Warbler'Bloody hilarious and salt-of-the-earth heartwarming, My Father and Other Animals is an absolute treasure of a book.' -Anna Krien, author of Act of Grace, Night Games and Into the Woods'A farmer, his son ... what to forget and what to remember, how to inherit and when to change. Sam Vincent has learned a few things from his dad, and among them is how to pay attention. For those of us who hunt our food plastic-wrapped in aisle three, this is a funny, kindly and observant introduction to the landscape that wraps around our cities, keeps us alive and means the world.' -Kate Holden, author of The Winter RoadSelected for the 2022 Grattan Institute Prime Minister's Summer Reading List

A moving and hilarious fish-out-of-water memoir of a millennial leaving his inner-city life to take over the family farm.Sam Vincent is a twenty-something writer in the inner suburbs, scrabbling to make ends meet, when he gets a call from his mother: his father has stuck his hand into a woodchipper, but 'not to worry - it wasn't like that scene in Fargo or anything'. When Sam returns to the family farm to help out, his life takes a new and unexpected direction.Whether castrating calves or buying a bull - or knocking in a hundred fence posts by hand when his dad hides the post-driver - Sam's farming apprenticeship is an education in grit and shit. But there are victories, too: nurturing a fig orchard to bloom; learning to read the land; joining forces with Indigenous elders to protect a special site. Slowly, Sam finds himself thinking differently about the farm, about his father and about his relationship with both.By turns affecting, hilarious and utterly surprising, this memoir melds humour and fierce honesty in an unsentimental love letter. It's about belonging, humility and regeneration - of land, family and culture. What passes from father to son on this unruly patch of earth is more than a livelihood; it is a legacy.

I pull on my balaclava and step onto the bridge wing. It's loud outside- I can hear the rumbles of nine vessels' engines and the hiss of ten water cannons ...suddenly the bridge is full of refugees from the upper deck. They are blocking my view out the back windows, but their faces - afraid, excited, awestruck - illustrate the looming presence of the Nisshin. I bend my knees and grip the bench, ready for the crunch. In Blood and Guts, Sam Vincent plunges into the whale wars. Vincent sets sail with Sea Shepherd, led by the charismatic and abrasive Paul Watson. He attends the recent case at the International Court of Justice, which finds Japan's 'scientific' whaling in the southern Ocean to be unlawful. And he travels to Japan to investigate why its government doggedly continues to bankroll the unprofitable hunt. This is a fresh, funny and intelligent look at how Australia has become the most vocal anti-whaling nation on Earth. Vincent skewers hypocrisy and sheds light on motives noble and otherwise. With Japan planning to relaunch its lethal program in 2015, the whale wars are set to continue.Blood and Guts is a riveting work of immersion journalism that lays bare the forces driving this conflict.