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 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 a calf 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.
A moving and hilarious fish-out-of-water memoir of a millennial leaving his inner-city life to take over the family farm.
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's a legacy.
Join Sam and former Wallaby David Pocock for the launch of My Father and Other Animals.
Free Event - registration essential
A friendly suggestion for the safety and well-being of yourself and other patrons that although face masks are not required, they are strongly encouraged while attending the event.
Sam Vincent's writing has appeared in The Monthly, The Saturday Paper, Griffith Review and The Best Australian Essays. His first book, Blood and Guts, was longlisted for the Walkley Book Award and in 2019 he won the Walkley Award for longform feature writing. He runs a cattle and fig farm in the Yass Valley, NSW, and supplies fruit to some of the best restaurants in the Canberra region.
David Willmer Pocock is a former professional rugby union player who served as captain of the Wallabies and vice-captain of the Brumbies. David has a Masters in Sustainable Agriculture and in 2020 he co-founded the Rangelands Restoration Trust, a regenerative agriculture project working to build nature-based climate solutions, adaptation and resilience in rural southern Zimbabwe. He is also a strong advocate for climate action, and in 2021 he spearheaded The Cool Down - a campaign that saw over 470 Australian athletes from 40+ sports call on Australia to lift its climate ambition.