Stephen Tandori was born in 1936 in Metkovic, Yugoslavia and arrived in Australia in 1959 as a political refugee. He had various jobs for a year or two before taking up picture framing and art restoration as well as dabbling in fine art sales in conjunction with his older brother John in High Street, Armadale.
In 1975 he moved to Sydney to establish Seascape Galleries. He returned to Melbourne fifteen years later and took up painting as a professional artist, residing in Baxter on a fairly large farm on the Mornington Peninsula. He lives there with his wife Pamela, three children and scores of noisy peacocks.
Stephen wrote poetry in the old country, and despite accolades of being the finest poet of his generation, including a stipend to move to Princeton University in the USA, he decided to gracefully decline the offer.
After visiting Hill End on the invitation of artist Garry Shead to stay in an artist colony some years back, he resumed writing but only short stories, alas unable to write poetry any more.
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