Martin Joseph Flanagan (born 1955) is an Australian journalist and author. He writes on sport, particularly

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

. Flanagan also writes opinion pieces, some of which are examinations of Australian culture and the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

Life and career

Martin Flanagan is one of six children of Arch Flanagan, a survivor of the Burma Death Railway. He is descended from Irish

convicts A convict is "a person found Guilt (law), guilty of a crime and Sentence (law), sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a commo ...

transported to

Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania during the European exploration of Australia, European exploration and colonisation of Australia in the 19th century. The Aboriginal Tasmanians, Aboriginal-inhabited island wa ...

in the 1840s. He grew up in

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

, graduated in Law at the

University of Tasmania The University of Tasmania (UTAS) is a public research university, primarily located in Tasmania, Australia. Founded in 1890, it is Australia's fourth oldest university. Christ College (University of Tasmania), Christ College, one of the unive ...

, and now lives in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. One of his three brothers is Tasmanian author, historian and film director

Richard Flanagan Richard Miller Flanagan (born 1961) is an Australian writer, who won the 2014 Man Booker Prize for his novel ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North (novel), The Narrow Road to the Deep North'' and the 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize for ''Question 7'', ...

. Flanagan has written 16 books, including the novel '' The Call'' (1998), an "historical imagining" into the life of

Tom Wills Thomas Wentworth Wills (19 August 1835 – 2 May 1880) was an Australian sportsman who is credited with being Australia's first cricketer of significance and a founder of Australian rules football. Born in the British penal colony of Colo ...

, the enigmatic father of Australian rules football and captain-coach of the first Aboriginal cricket team. Flanagan portrays Wills as a tragic figure caught between white and black Australia, and postulates that the Aboriginal game of Marngrook influenced his conception of Australian rules football. Flanagan subsequently became embroiled in football's " history wars" which received significant coverage in the national media in 2008, the year of the game's 150th anniversary celebrations.Flanagan, Martin (15 May 2008)
"The history wars and AFL footy"
, ''The Age''. Retrieved 23 March 2016. He and Bruce Myles adapted ''The Call'' into a stage play of the same name, which premiered at Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre in 2004.Martin Flanagan
The Wheeler Centre. '' The Game in Time of War'' (2003) is a collection of essays Flanagan wrote on the role that Australian rules football plays during wartime. He co-authored the non-fiction books '' The Line'' (2005) with his father Arch Flanagan, and ''The Fight'' (2006) with Tom Uren. Flanagan has also written biographies of Australian rules footballers: ''Richo'' (2010) on Matthew Richardson and ''The Short Long Book'' (2015) on Michael Long. In 2023 he published a memoir called ‘’The Empty Honour Board’’.

Bibliography

Novels

* ''Going Away'' (1993) * '' The Call'' (1998)

Poetry

* ''Shorts: Poems'' (1984)

Children's

* ''Archie's Letter: An ANZAC Story'' (2012)

Non-Fiction

* ''One of the Crowd'' (1990) * ''Family Matters'' (1993) * ''Southern Sky, Western Oval'' (1994) * ''1970'' (1999) * ''In Sunshine or in Shadow'' (2002) * '' The Game in Time of War'' (2003) * ''Faces in the Crowd'' (2005) * '' The Line: A Man's Experience: A Son's Quest to Understand Arch Flanagan'' (2005) * ''The Fight'' (2006) with Tom Uren * ''Richo'' (2010) with Matthew Richardson * ''The Short Long Book'' (2015) with Michael Long * '' A Wink from the Universe'' (2018) * ''The Tom Wills Picture Show'' (2018) * ''The Art of Pollination: A Year with the Irrepressible Jane Tewson'' (2020) * ''The Empty Honour Board: A School Memoir'' (2023)

Drama

* ''The Call'' (2004)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flanagan, Martin 1955 births Living people Australian sportswriters Australian columnists Writers from Tasmania Australian people of Irish descent University of Tasmania alumni Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame inductees People from Launceston, Tasmania