John Marsden was born in 1950, the third of four children. His life has been colourful and varied: everything from working in abattoirs and pizza shops, to four years as Head of English at Geelong Grammar’s famous Timbertop campus.

In 1987 John’s first book was published, and since then he has become one of Australia’s best-known and most popular authors.

Novels like Letters from the Inside and Tomorrow, When the War Began, and the writing manual Everything I Know About Writing, have earned him sales of over a million copies in Australia, and many more overseas.

John now lives just outside Melbourne, on a thousand acre bush property, where he runs writing workshops for groups of young people and adults.