Ivan Southall

Ivan Francis Southall AM, DFC (8 June 192115 November 2008) was an Australian writer best known for young adult fiction.

His daughter Elizabeth had three daughters, the eldest of whom was murdered in 1999. Elizabeth wrote a book about the case in 2002 titled Perfect Victim. The story was made into a film called In Her Skin in 2009.

Writer Ivan Southall began his career as a writer primarily writing historical accounts for adults. Notably, he wrote the biography of Keith Truscott, an Australian fighter ace who served in England in the last stages of the Battle of Britain and the aftermath, and later in Darwin and at Milne Bay.

Southall also wrote the official history of his Royal Australian Air Force squadron, 461 Squadron, based at Pembroke Dock, a town in South West Wales, when he was pilot of Short Sunderland flying boats. 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.

Southall also wrote Softly Tread the Brave, describing the courage of Royal Australian Volunteer Naval Reserve bomb disposal officers, Hugh Syme (GC, GM and Bar) and John Mould (GC, GM), who served in England disarming parachute mines. Southall later published a version of this story for younger readers under the title Seventeen Seconds — the time available to run in case the fuse of the mine was accidentally triggered while trying to disarm it.

From 1950 to 1962, Southall also wrote, for younger readers, adventure stories about a fictional brave pilot, 'Simon Black' — an Australian counterpart to W.E. Johns' hero 'Biggles'. Several of these ventured into science-fiction, with space flight, aliens and lost humanoid races.

After 1960, Southall's career pivoted into the everyday world of children and teenage characters. Southall dealt in his books both with survival in the face of dramatic events such as fire and flood and with personal and psychological challenges. He was one of the first to write specifically for young adults.

Southall's best known children's novels include Hills End, Ash Road, Let the Balloon Go and Josh (1962 to 1971). The non-fiction Fly West recounts his experiences in Short Sunderland flying boats during the Second World War. He is the only Australian winner of the annual Carnegie Medal for British children's books, the 1971 award to Josh.

Honours Ivan Southall won the 1971 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising Josh as the year's best children's book by a British subject.

Ash Road, To the Wild Sky, Bread and Honey and the nonfiction Fly West were all named CBCA Australian Children's Book of the Year (1966 to 1976).

Southall was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1981.

In 2003 he was awarded the Dromkeen Medal by the Oldmeadow Foundation for his lifetime contribution to children's literature in Australia.

Earlier that year, the Phoenix Award from the Children's Literature Association had recognised The Long Night Watch (Methuen Children's Books, 1983) as the best English-language children's book that did not get a major award when it was originally published twenty years earlier. It is named for the mythical bird phoenix, which is reborn from its ashes, to suggest the book's rise from obscurity.

The Sly Old Wardrobe, written by Southall and illustrated by Ted Greenwood, was named Children's Picture Book of the Year in 1969. The Story of The Hermitage: the first fifty years of the Geelong Church of England Girls' Grammar School (Melbourne: F. W. Cheshire, 1956) They Shall Not Pass Unseen (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1956) A Tale of Box Hill: day of the forest (Box Hill: Box Hill City Council, 1957) Bluey Truscott (Angus and Robertson, 1958) Softly Tread the Brave (1960) about Australian mine clearance officers John Mould and Hugh Syme (GC) Seventeen Seconds (1960) an abridged version of Softly Tread the Brave Journey into Mystery (1961) Parson on the Track (1961) Indonesia Face to Face (1964) Lawrence Hargrave (1964), in the Six Great Australians series Hills End (1962) Ash Road (1965) The Fox Hole (1967) To the Wild Sky (1967) Sly Old Wardrobe (1968), pictures by Ted Greenwood Let the Balloon Go (1968) Finn's Folly (1969) Chinaman's Reef is Ours (1970) Bread and Honey (1970); US title, Walk a Mile and Get Nowhere King of the Sticks (1979) The Golden Goose (1981) — sequel to King of the Sticks The Long Night Watch (1983) A City Out of Sight (1984) Rachel (1986) Blackbird (1988) The Mysterious World of Marcus Leadbeater (1990) Ziggurat (1997)