Marsden, John

John Marsden was born in Melbourne, Australia, and grew up in a series of small towns in the Australian outback. His father worked in a bank and his mother was a housewife. The family moved to Sydney in 1960 where John attended The King's School, an élite private school. Between 1968 and 1977, he worked in many different jobs including night watchman in a mortuary, motorcycle courier and delivering pizzas. After dropping out of the University of New England law school he attended a teacher-training course at Mitchell College. He then taught from 1982 until 1990. He now writes full time and lives in Newstead, Victoria.