John Marsden

John Marsden is a highly acclaimed Australian author, best known for his work in young adult (YA) action-adventure novels. He is most famous for his Tomorrow series, which has become one of the most popular book series for young adults in Australia. The first book of this series, "Tomorrow When The War Began," has been reprinted 26 times in Australia. Following the success of the Tomorrow series, Marsden published a new series of books featuring Ellie Linton from the Tomorrow series, known as The Ellie Chronicles.

Marsden is not only an accomplished author but also a high school principal and teacher. His passion for teaching led him to establish the Candlebark School on his farm in the Macedon Ranges in 2006. At the school, he administers the day-to-day activities and teaches aspiring students. In 2016, he also established a writing school on the same property, where he shares his knowledge and expertise with aspiring writers.

Born in Victoria, Marsden spent much of his childhood and teen years in Sydney, Devonport, Tasmania, and Kyneton, Victoria. Before settling on the teaching profession, he worked several jobs. However, he found his true calling when he started writing children’s books. By 1987, he had published his first novel, "So Much to Tell You," which was followed by "Take My Word For It," a half-sequel written from the point of view of another character.

Since then, Marsden has written more than 40 titles that have sold more than 5 million copies worldwide. His novels have been translated into more than ten languages, including Spanish, Polish, Italian, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, German, French, and Norwegian. Despite his success as an author, Marsden remains committed to teaching and nurturing the next generation of writers and learners.
Tomorrow Books
# Title Year
1 Tomorrow, When the War Began 1993
2 The Dead of Night 1994
3 A Killing Frost / The Third Day, the Frost 1995
4 Darkness, Be My Friend 1996
5 Burning For Revenge 1997
6 The Night is for Hunting 1998
7 The Other Side of Dawn 1999
The Ellie Chronicles Books
# Title Year
1 While I Live 2003
2 Incurable 2005
3 Circle Of Flight 2006
So Much to Tell You Books
# Title Year
1 So Much to Tell You 1987
2 Take My Word For It 1992
Standalone Novels
# Title Year
1 The Great Gatenby 1989
2 Letters from the Inside 1991
3 Cool School 1995
4 Checkers 1996
5 Staying Alive in Year Five 1996
6 Looking For Trouble 1996
7 Dear Miffy 1997
8 Secret Men's Business 1998
9 Prayer for the Twenty-First Century 1998
10 Winter 2000
11 The Head Book 2001
12 A Day in the Life of Me 2002
13 Hamlet 2008
14 Hamlet & Ophelia 2009
15 The Year My Life Broke 2013
16 South of Darkness 2014
17 Millie 2020
18 A Roomful of Magic 2020
Picture Books (with Shaun Tan)
# Title Year
1 The Rabbits 1998
2 Norton's Hut 1998
3 Home and Away 2008
Non-Fiction Books
# Title Year
1 Marsden on Marsden 2000
2 Somerled: And the Emergence of Gaelic Scotland 2008
From Reason to Revolution Books
# Title Year
1 Reminiscences 1808-1815 Under Wellington 2017
2 Glories to Useless Heroism 2017
3 The Autobiography or Narrative of a Soldier 2017
4 Far Distant Ships: The Blockade of Brest, 1793-1815 2017
5 Recollections from the Ranks 2017
6 On Gladsmuir Shall the Battle Be! 2017
7 The French Army of the Orient 1798-1801 2017
8 Olmutz to Torgau: Horace St Paul and the Campaigns of the Austrian Army in the Seven Years War 1758-60 2018
9 The Veteran or 40 Years' Service in the British Army 2018
10 Narrative of the Eventful Life of Thomas Jackson 2018
11 By Fire and Bayonet: Grey's West Indies Campaign of 1794 2018
12 Murat's Army: The Army of the Kingdom of Naples 1806-1815 2018
13 Next to Wellington: General Sir George Murray 2018
14 "Men who are Determined to be Free": The American Assault on Stony Point, 15 July 1779 2018
15 For Orange and the States Part I 2018
16 With the Guards in Flanders: The Diary of Captain Roger Morris, 1793-1795 2018
17 We are Accustomed to Do Our Duty: German Auxiliaries with the British Army 1793-95 2018
18 The Secret Expedition: The Anglo-Russian Invasion of Holland 1799 2018
19 A Light Infantryman with Wellington: The Letters of Captain George Ulrich Barlow 52nd and 69th Foot 1808-15 2018
20 For Orange and the States: The Army of the Dutch Republic, 1713-1772: Part II: Cavalry and Special Troops 2019
21 The Key to Lisbon: The Third French Invasion of Portugal, 1810-11 2019
22 Swiss Regiments in the Service of France 1798-1815 2019
23 Command and Leadership 1721-1815 2019
24 Waterloo - After the Glory: Hospital Sketches and Reports on the Wounded after the Battle 2019
25 A Redcoat in America: The Diaries of Lieutenant William Bamford, 1757-1765 and 1776 2019
26 They Were Good Soldiers: African–Americans Serving in the Continental Army, 1775-1783 2019
27 Quebec Under Siege: French Eye-Witness Accounts from the Campaign of 1759 2019
28 Fluxes, Fevers and Fighting Men: War and Disease in Ancien Regime Europe 1648-1789 2019
29 Northern Tars in Southern Waters: The Russian Fleet in the Mediterranean, 1806-1810 2019
30 King George’s Hangman: Henry Hawley and the Battle of Falkirk, 1746 2019
31 So Bloody a Day: The 16th Light Dragoons in the Waterloo Campaign 2019
32 Royal Navy Officers of the Seven Years War: A Biographical Dictionary of Commissioned Officers 1748-1763 2019
33 Zweybrücken in Command: The Reichsarmee in the Campaign of 1758 2019
34 Glory Is Fleeting: New Scholarship on the Napoleonic Wars 2019
35 All at Sea: Naval Support for the British Army During the American Revolutionary War 2019
36 Revenge in the Name of Honour: The Royal Navy’s Quest for Vengeance in the Single Ship Actions of the War of 1812 2020
37 They Fought with Extraordinary Bravery: The III German Army Corps in the Southern Netherlands, 1814 2020
38 Fashioning Regulation, Regulating Fashion: The Uniforms and Dress of the British Army 1800-1815: Volume II 2020
39 The Danish Army of the Napoleonic Wars 1801-1815. Organisation, Uniforms & Equipment: Volume 1 - High Command, Line and Light Infantry 2020
40 From Across the Sea: North Americans in Nelson’s Navy 2020
41 Guerra Fantastica: The Portuguese Army in the Seven Years War 2020
42 Neither Up Nor Down: The British Army and the Campaign in Flanders 1793-1795 2020
43 Wellington at Bay: The Battle of Villamuriel, 25 October 1812 2020
44 Rebellious Scots to Crush: The Military Response to the Jacobite ‘45 2020
45 Wellington’s Favourite Engineer: John Fox Burgoyne: Operations, Engineering, and the Making of a Field Marshal 2020
46 Life in the Red Coat: The British Soldier 1721-1815 2020
47 Scharnhorst: The Formative Years, 1755-1801 2021
48 The Sieges of the '45: Siege Warfare during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745-1746 2021
49 Austrian Cavalry of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1792-1815 2021
50 Sir James McGrigor: The Adventurous Life of Wellington's Chief Medical Officer 2021
51 At the Point of the Bayonet The Peninsular War Battles of Arroyomolinos and Almaraz 1811-1812 2021
52 Napoleon’s Stolen Army: How the Royal Navy Rescued a Spanish Army in the Baltic 2021
53 Crisis at the Chesapeake: The Royal Navy and the Struggle for America 1775-1783 2021
54 The Sword and the Spirit: Proceedings of the first ‘War & Peace in the Age of Napoleon’ 2021
55 The Sea Is My Element: The Eventful Life of Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm, 1766-1838 2021
56 Their Infantry and Guns Will Astonish You: The Army of Hindustan and European Mercenaries in Maratha service 1780-1803 2021
57 Bullocks, Grain, and Good Madeira: The Maratha and Jat Campaigns, 1803-1806 and the Emergence of an Indian Arm 2021
58 For God and King: A History of the Damas Legion : A Case Study of the Military Emigration during the French Revolution 2021
59 Wellington and the Lines of Torres Vedras: The Defence of Portugal during the Peninsular War, 1807-1814 2021
60 Hastenbeck 1757: The French Army and the Opening Campaign of the Seven Years War 2021
61 Riflemen: The History of the 5th Battalion, 60th 2021
62 Like a Brazen Wall: The Battle of Minden, 1759, and its Place in the Seven Years War 2021
63 French Light Infantry 1784-1815: From the Chasseurs of Louis XVI to Napoleon’s Grande Armée 2021
64 Rebellion, Invasion and Occupation: The British Army in Ireland, 1793-1815 2021
65 These Distinguished Corps: British Grenadier and Light Infantry Battalions in the American Revolution 2021
66 Lobositz to Leuthen: Horace St Paul and the Campaigns of the Austrian Army in the Seven Years War 1756-57 2022
67 Napoleonic French Military Uniforms 1798-1814 2022
68 A Very Fine Regiment: The 47th Foot during the American War of Independence, 1773-1783 2022
69 No Want of Courage: The British Army in Flanders, 1793-1795 2022
70 Armies and Enemies of Napoleon, 1789-1815: Proceedings of the 2021 Helion and Company ’From Reason to Revolution’ Conference 2022
71 The Battle of Rossbach 1757: New Perspectives on the Battle and Campaign 2022
72 The Army of the Kingdom of Italy, 1805-1814 2022
73 The Soldiers are Dressed in Red: The Quiberon Expedition of 1795 and the Counter-Revolution in Brittany 2022
74 From Ushant to Gibraltar: The Channel Fleet 1778-1783 2022
75 1805 – Tsar Alexander\'s First War with Napoleon: The Russian Official History 2022
76 The Ottoman Army of the Napoleonic Wars, 1784-1815 2022
77 The Changing Face of Old Regime Warfare: Essays in Honour of Christopher Duffy 2022
78 More Furies Than Men 2022
79 All the Seas of the World 2022
80 Ladies, Wives and Women: British Army Wives in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars 1793-1815 2022
81 Wellington's Other Army 2022
82 New Perspectives on the Jacobite ’45 2023
83 Fit to Command 2023
84 The Pattern: The 33rd Regiment in the American Revolution, 1770-1783 2023
85 1806-1807 - Tsar Alexander's Second War with Napoleon: The Russian Official History 2023
86 You Have to Die in Piedmont!: The Battle of Assietta, 19 July 1747. The War of the Austrian Succession in the Alps 2023
87 Wellington's Unsung Heroes: The Fifth Division in the Peninsular War, 1810-1814 2023
88 Kesselsdorf 1745: Decision in the Fight for Silesia 2023
89 To Conquer and to Keep: Suchet and the War for Eastern Spain, 1809-1814 2023
90 The Bavarian War of Succession, 1778-79 2023
91 A Fine Corps and will Serve Faithfully: The Swiss Regiment de Roll in the British Army 1794-1816 2023
92 Anson: Naval Commander and Statesman 2023
93 The Tagus Campaign of 1809 2023
94 An Atlas of the Battles and Campaigns of the American Revolution, 1775-1783 2023
95 Maurice de Saxe and the Conquest of the Austrian Netherlands 1744-1748: Volume 1 - The Ghosts of Dettingen 2023
96 Confronting Napoleon: Levin von Bennigsen’s Memoir of the Campaign in Poland, 1806-1807: Volume II 2023
Shaun Tan Picture Books (with Shaun Tan)
# Title Year
1 The Rabbits 1998
2 The Lost Thing 2000
3 The Red Tree 2001
4 Rules of Summer 2013
5 Cicada 2018
6 Dog 2020