John Flanagan

John Flanagan was an Australian fantasy author best known for his children's books. His best-known work is the Ranger's Apprentice medieval fantasy novels and companion series Brotherband Chronicles. He also wrote novels for adults. John Flanagan grew up in Sydney suburb of Clovelly and attended Waverley College, Australia hoping to be a writer. It wasn't until he wrote a highly uncomplimentary poem about a senior executive at the agency where he worked, however, that his talent was revealed. It turned out one of the company directors agreed with John's assessment of the executive, and happily agreed to train John in copywriting. After writing advertising copy for the next two decades, John teamed with Gary Reilly, he co-created the television series Hey Dad..! and wrote 293 of its episodes, which went on to air for eight years. He also wrote for Hampton Court and My Two Wives. He started working on what would become Ranger's Apprentice in the 1990s, originally comprising twenty short stories for his son Michael, who at the time was twelve. Flanagan wanted to encourage his son to read, as well as show him that heroes, like the main character Will, don't have to be big and strong; Michael was a small boy, and all his friends were bigger and stronger than he was. In the early 2000s, John decided to make the stories into the first novel The Ruins of Gorlan. This was published in 2004, when he was 60. There are currently fourteen books published, and all of them have been released in the USA. In 2008, he won the Australian Publishers Association's Book of the Year for "Older Children and the International Success Award" for Erak's Ransom. The series has become steadily more popular. Now sold to eighteen countries, the it has appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers List and is regularly shortlisted in children's book awards in Australia and overseas.