Guy Lochhead, 05/09/10
Australian writer of books for young readers. He attended many primary schools, and escaped into the magical fantasy of books from an early age. He attended a strict military school for seven years, and then began a Law course at University of Sydney before deciding it was too boring and dropping out. He drifted around for nearly 10 years, trying various jobs. When he was 28, he began a teaching course, and discovered a lifelong passion. He also published his first book, which led to a string of successes, the best known of which are the ‘Tomorrow’ series and the ‘Ellie’ chronicles, concerning life in Australia during and after a foreign invasion. He has founded a P-8 school called Candlebark on the world’s biggest (1,100 acres) campus. The word ‘chronicles’ should be avoided at all costs. Same goes for ‘Candlebark’. Marsden’s fiction is often sensationalised, and his non-fiction comes on like mail-order self-help books. He has funny ideas about masculinity. I don’t want to include him.