The Australian literary community has been grieving at the news of John Marsden’s death late last year. In the decade before the releases of Harry Potter, Twilight and The Hunger Games, Marsden had a powerful impact on the young adult publishing industry.
Marsden is best known for Tomorrow, When the War Began, the novel that spawned one of the most popular Australian young adult series of all time. The series follows a band of regional Australian teenagers who accidentally become soldiers in guerilla warfare when the country is invaded.
Adult reviewers of the 1993 book were initially cold. “The pace of the story at times is tediously slow,” wrote one. “To be honest, I found it too slow and didn’t bother going on with it,” wrote another.
Even publishers were initially wary of the book. “All the experts I spoke to said it was essential to give teenagers short books,” Marsden recalled in his memoir Marsden on Marsden. “Yet everywhere I looked, I saw teenagers avidly reading The Lord of the Rings.”
Of course, Tomorrow, When the War Began and its sequels would eventually be dwarfed by industry giants such as Harry Potter in page count. It also predicted a powerful trend in adolescent fiction for violent, dystopian stories.
John Marsden wasn’t afraid of dark themes
Marsden wasn’t wary of being controversial; his books often dealt with dark subject matter. His famed stand-alone novel Letters from the Inside (1991) captures the pen pal relationship between two teenagers, one of whom is in juvenile detention. The novel is best remembered for its implicit and tragic ending.
Letters from the Inside was partly inspired by Marsden’s brief time as a prisoner in Hobart, where he was a part of the protest against development on the Franklin River. Like all of Marsden’s young adult work, the book shows profound compassion for its teenage characters. This is especially true of Tracey, the protagonist of Letters from the Inside, who is jailed for a heinous crime unknown to the reader.
Marsden wrote of his philosophy behind the book in Marsden on Marsden: “In telling Tracey’s story, I wanted to show that under the aggression and bravado was someone who had been badly hurt. It is my belief there is no such thing as crime, just illness… I don’t think we will be truly civilised as a society until we recognise this and turn prisons into centres where people with these problems receive help and support to work through them.”
The complex politics of John Marsden
It would be too simplistic to suggest that Marsden’s work in environmental conservation and youth advocacy meant he was a holistic devotee of leftist politics. He often shared publicly that the Tomorrow series was based on his belief in the value of an Australian Defence Force.
It is also a mistake to remember his legacy in the prolific young adult writing of the 1980s and 1990s. Marsden was a vigilant spokesman on education and parenting in his later years.
His final books before his death were non-fiction books The Art of Growing Up and Take Risks: Raising Kids Who Love the Adventure of Life. They caused a stir when they were released in 2019 and 2021 respectively.
He was most criticised for his discussion on modern parenting, describing suffocating or overprotective parenting as emotional abuse that could cause lifelong impacts. The views were primarily built on his experience with his own schools, where he was the founder and principal.
He admitted some parents would be defensive when Marsden shared his views. “Some of them storm out of the school, taking their children with them, and you never see them again,” he told the ABC. “Certainly, there’s a major difference – as I think teachers in any school would agree – between the parents who can hear uncomfortable things about their child and the parents who can’t. The first group are delightful to work with, and the second group are hard work.”
Marsden was heavily critical of state education departments, which he said were filled with “failed teachers suffering from social awkwardness”. His progressive schools emphasised flexibility, nature and risk-taking.
Marsden’s hope for his school students and the next generation of Australian teenagers was to inspire children to “revegetate, reforest, regenerate the world”. He saw the damage of industrialisation, capitalism and technology as an urgent and severe threat.
In considering Marsden’s legacy, it is important to remember his most fierce advocacy.Â
