Tomorrow Series - Inspiration

Inspiration

John Marsden was inspired to write Tomorrow, When the War Began while watching an ANZAC Day march. A large number of teenagers were in attendance, paying respect to the sacrifices made by the past generations. He wondered how they might react if they were placed in the same position that their grandparents were at their age. He felt that the popular media’s view of the average young person as "illiterate, drug crazed, suicidal, alcoholic, criminal, promiscuous, a dole bludger, or all of the above" was wrong. It seemed to him that like the generations before them modern teenagers would "dig deep and find reserves of initiative, maturity, responsibility and even heroism".

With Tomorrow, When the War Began and its sequels Marsden set out to write an "old fashioned adventure story". To do this Marsden looked to the authors he had read most avidly as a teenager, thriller writers such as Ian Fleming, Desmond Bagley, John Buchan, Hammond Innes and Alistair MacLean. He sought to emulate their approaches to timing, pacing and building tension and suspense and combine them with "the new teenage genres, where feelings, relationships and character development were all-important."

The inspiration for the rural setting of the series was what Marsden saw as the disappearance of the bush tales that he had enjoyed growing up. He had noticed that many novels for young people published in recent decades were about issues arising for families and children living in the suburbs. In Marsden on Marsden he writes:

"I’ve written some of these novels myself, and I know and appreciate the need for them, but I thought it was a pity that we had gotten so far away from the bush and country novels that were popular in earlier generations, and I quite consciously set out to revive that genre."

Marsden cites the works of Australian Children's Author Mary Grant Bruce as major influence on the series. In his introduction to the John Marsden Presents: Australian Children's Classics imprint of Bruce's 1940 novel Peter and Co Marsden notes the book's similarities to his series. Both are stories about groups of young people battling enemy forces intent on the invasion of Australia. Marsden states that while he didn't intentionally set out to emulate Peter and Co when he wrote Tomorrow, When the War Began he does see many of his memories of the novel reflected in his work.

Ellie, the Tomorrow series central protagonist was modelled on the "courageous and resourceful" farm girl Norah from Mary Grant Bruce’s Billabong series of novels. The series follows the fortunes of the Linton family, the owners of a large cattle station in Victoria, during first half of the 20th century. In the Tomorrow Series it is implied that Ellie is the great-granddaughter of Norah’s brother Jim. The character was also inspired by Charlotte Austin, a student who Marsden had taught and admired for her resourcefulness, honesty and "gutsy approach to life".

The character of Homer was based on a number of students from rural backgrounds that Marsden had taught. He noticed that many of these students, who at home drove cars, ploughed fields, harvested crops, worked as shearers and more, had trouble adjusting to an environment where they "were not trusted to change a light globe or put a Band-Aid on a cut". These students became frustrated and angry and their immature behaviour was the result.

Robyn was modelled after Marsden’s own sister, a deeply committed Christian. Marsden was inspired to write the character when he noticed that while many teenagers identified themselves are Christians this group was not represented at all in fiction written for them. Chris was an approximation of Marsden himself as a teen. Though unlike Chris, Marsden never used drugs.

When asked why young people related to the characters in his books, Ellie in particular, Marsden speculated that, like himself, they found their strength and self-reliance inspirational. In an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Rollercoaster website he explained what inspired him to highlight these virtues in his work:

"I've always been attracted to strong people in real life and in fiction. As a kid I read a lot of books like The Naked Island about Russell Braddon and his experiences on the Burma-Thai Railway and The Cattle King, which is the biography of Sidney Kidman, and they had a profound impact on me and I read those books many times. So I think the idea of people overcoming adversity by using their own resources was strongly imprinted in me by those books, because those guys had nothing except their own strength and their own mind power. There's something noble about that."