Ivan Southall
| Ivan Southall | |
|---|---|
| Born | Ivan Francis Southall 8 June 1921 Canterbury, Victoria |
| Died | 15 November 2008 (aged 87) Wantirna, Victoria |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Notable works | Ash Road, To the Wild Sky, Bread and Honey, Fly West |
| Notable awards | Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers 1966, 1968, 1971, 1976; Carnegie Medal 1971 |
| Years active | 1942-2000 |
Ivan Francis Southall AM, DFC (8 June 1921 – 15 November 2008) was an Australian writer best known for young adult fiction. He wrote more than 30 children's books, six books for adults, and at least ten works of history, biography or other non-fiction.
Ivan Southall was born in Melbourne, Victoria. His father died when Ivan was 14, and he and his brother Gordon were raised by their mother. He went to Mont Albert Central School (where he wrote the first of his Simon Black stories) and later Box Hill Grammar, but was forced to leave school early, and became an apprentice process engraver. He joined the Royal Air Force in Britain, and was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross for his role in sinking a German U-boat in the Bay of Biscay in 1944. He returned to Australia with his English bride, Joy Blackburn. Their youngest daughter was born with Down syndrome.
He tried his hand at farming at Monbulk, but the attempt foundered. His only option was to become a full-time writer.
Ivan Southall had two careers as a writer.
His first period was mainly as author for adult readers, up to 1960. Notably, he wrote the biography of 'Bluey' Truscott, an Australian fighter ace who served in England in the last stages of the Battle of Britain and the aftermath, including seeing action during Operation Seelowe (Sealion), the breakout from a French harbor of the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau; and later in Darwin, in North Australia, during the early Japanese air raids, and then at Milne Bay, at the eastern end of New Guinea, during the last stages of the Japanese advances into the South Pacific and New Guinea.
Southall also wrote the official history of his Royal Australian Air Force squadron in the south of England, when he was pilot of Short Sunderland flying boats patrolling against and attacking German U-boats in the Bay of Biscay. Later he published a version of this history as They Shall Not Pass Unseen, and much later returned to his experiences of combat in Sunderlands in books for younger readers, including the non-fiction Fly West, and the novels Simon Black in Coastal Command, and What About Tomorrow?.
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