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John Marsden


Australia (b.1950)

John Marsden was born in Victoria, Australia in 1950.  He went to many different primary schools, and from an early age enjoyed the journeys into magical worlds that reading could provide.  His teachers in Grade 4 and Grade 6 encouraged him to write, and at the age of nine he decided he wanted to become an author.

For seven years he attended The King's School Parramatta, a strict military school in Sydney, and from there went on to the University of Sydney.  However, he soon decided that a career in law looked too boring, so he dropped out and drifted around for nearly 10 years, trying different jobs, and earning just enough money to support himself.

When he was 28, he began a teaching course, which he loved from the start. Embarking on a teaching career, he also became more and more interested in writing, and in 1987 succeeded in getting his first book, "So Much to Tell You", published.

John's interest in education has never waned. In 1998 he bought the Tye Estate, 850 acres of natural bush, on the northern edge of Melbourne, and later added the property next door.  For eight years he ran enormously popular writers' courses and camps at Tye, before starting his own school there, Candlebark, in 2006.
 

Genres: Young Adult Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction
 
Series
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Tomorrow
   1. Tomorrow, When the War Began (1994)
   2. The Dead of the Night (1997)
   3. A Killing Frost (1995)

     aka The Third Day, the Frost

   4. Darkness, Be My Friend (1996)
   5. Burning for Revenge (1997)
   6. The Night is for Hunting (1998)
   7. The Other Side of Dawn (2002)
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Ellie Chronicles
   1. While I Live (2003)
   2. Incurable (2005)
   3. Circle of Flight (2006)
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Novels
   The Journey (1988)
   The Great Gatenby (1991)
   Letters from the Inside (1992)
   Checkers (1996)
   Dear Miffy (1997)
   Winter (2000)
   Out of Time (2005)
   Hamlet (2009)
   The Year My Life Broke (2013)
   South of Darkness (2014)
   The Art of Growing Up (2019)
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Plays show
 
Picture Books show
 
Non fiction show
 
John Marsden recommends
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Red Samurai (2019)
(Roxy Ran, book 2)
Tiffiny Hall
"Dazzlingly different... Tiffiny Hall is the new voice in children's fiction."
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Laurinda (2014)
(Laurinda)
Alice Pung
"Alice Pung totally nails it with Laurinda, Funny, horrifying, and sharp as a serpent's fangs."

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