John Marsden was in the second year of a law degree at Sydney University when his life suddenly changed. Sitting in the Law School cafeteria one afternoon he watched as the doors opened and a tidal wave of final year students washed in for their evening classes. One look at the tsunami of men in dark suits convinced John he was in the wrong place.

He left law school that same day, never to return.

It took him ten years and many false starts to find a job he liked, but in 1979 he began a teaching career at All Saints College Bathurst, where he enjoyed the contact with people, and the creativity, that teaching offered.

Teaching also introduced John to teenage fiction. He admired the works of authors like Paul Zindel, Robert Cormier and Patricia Wrightson. In 1988 John entered this field with his novel So Much To Tell You. Since then he has published twenty-eight other works, including fiction, non-fiction and picture books.