Australian writer John Marsden, author of Tomorrow series, dies ...
3 hours agoWed 18 Dec 2024 at 7:01am
John Marsden was one of Australia's greatest writers of children's and young adult literature. (ABC Central Victoria: Larissa Romensky)
Acclaimed Australian author John Marsden has died aged 74.
Marsden wrote the Tomorrow series, which sold millions of copies worldwide and was adapted for film and television.
He won many literary awards and was honoured with the 2006 Lloyd O'Neil Award for contributions to Australian publishing.
Acclaimed Australian author John Marsden, whose young adult novels were read and beloved across the world, has died aged 74.
Marsden wrote the internationally best-selling Tomorrow book series, which sold millions of copies and was adapted for film and television.
He won many major awards for children's and adult fiction, and in 2006 received the Lloyd O'Neil Award for contributions to Australian publishing.
Marsden wrote more than 40 books across multiple genres. (ABC News: Dave May)
Marsden's 1993 novel Tomorrow, When the War Began, about a hypothetical war where Australia is invaded, made him one of Australia's most renowned young adult novelists.
His popularity and acclaim spanned to the United States, where Tomorrow, Where the War Began featured on the American Library Association's (ALA) "Best Books for Young Adults" list in 1996. In 2000, the ALA named the book at number 41 on its list of "100 Best Books for Teens" published between 1966 and 2000.
Pan Macmillan Australia, Marsden's publisher, labelled the Tomorrow books "the best series for Australian teens of all time".
Later in life, Marsden ran two schools alongside his writing pursuits. (ABC News: Dave May)
In 2018, speaking about the books, Marsden told the ABC: "The characters have plenty of weaknesses … but I wanted teenagers to realise that doesn't mean you have no strengths".
"The Tomorrow series, I hope, is giving young people the message that they are capable of great things," he said.
His historical novel South of Darkness won the Christina Stead Award for best novel in 2015.
Marsden founded and served as principal at two schools in regional Victoria, Candlebark near Romsey and Alice Miller in Macedon.
"Running a school is probably the most intense and complicated job I've had in my life. The only thing I can compare it to is when I worked in the emergency department at Sydney Hospital when I was about 19," he told the ABC in 2018.
Of starting the school at Candelbark, which sits in bushland, he said: "It's very important that young people get their hands dirty, both literally and metaphorically … There's a lot of laughter. There's a lot of joking. There are a lot of serious conversations, too."
In a joint statement on Thursday evening Candlebark and Alice Miller said Marsden "transformed countless young lives through both his writing and his groundbreaking approach to education".
Sarita Ryan, the principal of the schools, said he was "a true champion of children and young people" who "had unflinching belief in them and viewed them with profound respect".
