Rod Beattie is an actor, known for The Wars (1983), Letter from Wingfield Farm (1993) and Wingfield (1998). He has been married to Martha Henry since 1990.
In his second season on the farm Walt faces a new challenge. The spectre of urban development looms on the Seventh Concession and Walt sounds the alarm. Can he mobilize the neighbourhood to save the rustic splendour of Larkspur? Does Larkspur want to be saved? Wingfield’s Progress is the story of Walt’s passionate response to a threat only he perceives. Larkspur and its residents are back at their hilarious best in this sequel to Letter From Wingfield Farm.
When a captain of industry trades his pinstripe suit for overalls and retreats to a hundred acre farm, the residents of Persephone Township raise their eyebrows. Weekend farmers are a common enough sight, but this man seems to think he can make a living with a broken down racehorse and a single furrow plough. Letter From Wingfield Farm is the story of one man's attempt to embrace a less complicated world. In a series of letters to the editor of the Larkspur weekly newspaper, Walt Wingfield tells of the people and events of his first year as a man of the soil.
In his third year on the farm, after two profit-free seasons, Walt finally pinpoints the economic source of his problems and embarks on a course which brings him to his most profound crisis to date. In this sequel to Letter From Wingfield Farm and Wingfield's Progress Walt sets up a closed economy with his neighbours, prints his own currency and falls in love.