Easily readable, highly entertaining and destined for the screen, this book should have broad appeal. Tim Slee celebrates Australia’s rebel spirit with references to Henry Lawson and Ned Kelly, and unearths the stoicism, perseverance and humour of our rural character. Narrative tension increases as the journey progresses, with the police trying to stop it, the media fuelling it and a mystery following it. Tom’s twin children, Jack and Jenny, are united by the belief their dad is still alive and their analgesia, an inability to feel pain. Along the way, the entourage attracts wanted and unwanted attention, a colourful medley of characters and a sizeable hashtag following. After Tom Murray accidentally kills himself burning his farmhouse down to prevent the bank from getting it, his wife, Dawn, decides to take his body via horse and cart on a five-day journey to Melbourne. The adaptation of Taking Tom Murray Home will go into financing in 2021, and production in 2022.Debut novel and winner of HarperCollins’ Banjo Prize is based on the ingenious premise of a funeral-protest that raises awareness of the pressures facing dairy farmers from banks, supermarkets and the cult of cheap milk. It is a compelling portrait of community and mateship, of drought and struggle, of poetry and loss, and of the endless capacity of banks for bad behaviour. Said Producer Jo Dyer: “We are delighted to have secured the rights to Tim’s wonderful book. Said author Tim Slee: Readers and reviewers have frequently commented that Taking Tom Murray Home is a story made for the screen so it’s exciting to see it optioned! I love LUCKY MILES so when Jo told me she was interested and had Michael in mind as writer/director I knew the story would be in excellent hands. Tim’s novel is a moving, sharp comedy, which connects country and city in a golden Australian frame. Said Writer/Director Michael James Rowland: “Very excited to be working with Jo on the film adaptation of Tim Slee’s Taking Tom Murray Home. With the coffin on an old milkcart pulled by old Clydesdale Danny Boy, they process slowly across the state, their dignified convoy a symbol of community and expanding political protest as they take Tom home to be buried. Published in 2019 by HarperCollins Australia, Taking Tom Murray Home was the inaugural winner of the Banjo Prize, and tells the story of ordinary people on an extraordinary journey:Īfter Tom Murray’s accidental death in the fire in which he sought to destroy his home and thereby keep it out of the hands of the merciless banks intent on foreclosing on the mortgage, the Murray family and their community embark on a funeral procession from their home in regional Australia to the bright lights of the city.
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