OBITUARY | Contact
Young adults across Australia are today farewelling a man who activated teenage imaginations right across the world.
Beloved Australian author John Marsden, whose novels were cherished by millions, has died overnight. He was aged 74.
Marsden won many major awards for children’s and adult fiction, and brought to life an fictional universe that had generations of Aussie kids fighting against foreign armies in the bush.
His internationally best-selling ‘Tomorrow When The War Began’ series sold broke reprinting records, and provided a suitable alternative for the rough and tumble kids who weren’t that interested in reading about wizards and witches.
Today, right across Australia and the world, young adults and kids are farewelling the man who didn’t shy away from writing books about teenagers blowing up fuel tankers and firing machine guns at unknown invading armies who had taken their parents hostage in the Wirrawee showgrounds.
He wrote about youthful love, anger and awkwardness in a way that many authors could not – in the backdrop of a fictional war that could not be won without the underestimated teenagers stealing cars and blowing up enemy base camps.
Marsden’s approach to activating the creativity and wellbeing of rowdy kids was extended to his efforts in reframing education as we know it. He founded and served as principal at two bush schools in regional Victoria: Candlebark near Romsey and Alice Miller in Macedon.
He will remembered fondly by thousands of students and millions of kids who read nothing else.
Go well, John Marsden. 1950 – 2024.
