credit: Erin Jonasson

Tim Winton wins Miles Franklin award for fourth time

Tim Winton c. Erin Jonasson

Twice Booker Prize shortlisted author enters the record books.

19 June 2009

Australian author Tim Winton has won his fourth Miles Franklin award for Breath 25 years after he first won the prize with Shallows in 1984.

The award of £20,000 is Australia's most important literary prize.  Winton has also won in 1992 with Cloudstreet and in 2002 for Dirt Music, which was shortlisted the same year for the Man Booker Prize.

Breath, which follows the life story of Bruce 'Pikelet' Pike who as a young boy learns to surf with his friend, was described by judges as 'a searing document about masculinity, about risk, and about young people's desire to push the limits'.

The win means Winton enters the record books as the only author to take the Miles Franklin Literary Award four times as the sole winner.

The Man Booker Prize Fiction at its finest