Australian author John Marsden has died at the age of 74.
The legendary writer was best known for his best-selling Tomorrow book series. He won a number of awards during his career for both children’s and adult fiction books. Among his accolades was the Lloyd O’Neil Award for contributions to Australian publishing, which he was awarded in 2006. He also won the Christina Stead Award for Best Novel of 2015.
Millions of copies of his Tomorrow series were sold across the globe, with the concept also being adapted for film and television. His publisher, Pac Macmillan Australia, previously labelled his books “the best series for Australian teens of all time”.
His 1993 novel, titled Tomorrow, When the War Began, was about a hypothetical war where Australia is invaded. It helped raise him to prominence in the industry. He soon followed them with the second in the series, published in 2005. A third came out a year later.
In total, the author published more than 40 books across a number of genres. His first book titled So Much to Tell You was published in 1987. Other popular titles of his included Darkness, Be My Friend, which was the fourth edition of the Tomorrow series.
Following his award win in 2006, he reduced his writing time and focused on teaching and running a new alternative school he founded, the Candlebark School in the Macedon Ranges.
According to his biography on his website, “Candlebark is a P-8 co-educational school, based to a considerable extent on the principles of Fitzroy Community School in Melbourne.”
In 2018, he told ABC: “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.”
Further explaining his reasoning behind starting the school, he said at the time: “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.”
Fans quickly took to social media with messages of condolence following news of his death. On Twitter/X one user wrote: “RIP John Marsden. I read and re read your Tomorrow series to death as a kid – you had a gift.”
Another added: “These books were wonderful to lose myself in when I was young. I was so excited when John Marsden came to speak at my school around book 3.” And a third said: “Very sad to hear of the passing of john marsden. He was one of the standout teachers through my schooling — in many ways similar to the character of john keating in dead poets society.”
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