John Williamson Hooker (3 April 1932 – 29 April 2008) was a New Zealand-born Australian novelist.

Life and work

John Hooker was born in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, where he received an MA from the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

. He spent some time in the US before moving to Australia in 1963, working as publishing director at Penguin Australia and HarperCollins, Collins. He turned to full-time writing in 1985.''The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature'', 2nd edition, Oxford, Melbourne, 1994, p. 376. His novels display a gift for "dramatic action, landscape description and psychological insight". AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource, AustLit notes that they also focus on "such themes as murder, violence, corruption, racism and love". The most popular are ''The Bush Soldiers'' (1984) and ''Standing Orders'' (1986). ''The Bush Soldiers'' imagines what might have happened if Japanese forces had invaded Australia during the Second World War. ''Standing Orders'' is set during the Korean War. Hooker suffered from multiple sclerosis from his fifties and in later years was confined to a wheelchair. He and his second wife, Rae, moved to Port Fairy on Victoria's west coast, where he wrote a weekly column, "The Hooker Line", for the local newspaper ''The Warrnambool Standard''. He died in Melbourne from pneumonia, aged 76, survived by Rae and his son.

Books

Novels

* ''Jacob's Season'' (1971) * ''The Bush Soldiers'' (1984) * ''Standing Orders'' (1986) * ''Captain James Cook'' (1987, based on a screenplay by Peter Yeldham) * ''Rubicon'' (1990) * ''Our Jack'' (1995) * ''Beyond the Pale'' (1998)

Non-fiction

* ''Brekky, Dinner & Tea: Recipes for When You're Hungry'' (1985, with John Michie) * ''Korea: The Forgotten War'' (1989)

References

External links

John Hooker resources at the National Library of Australia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hooker, John 1932 births 2008 deaths Writers from Auckland University of Auckland alumni New Zealand emigrants to Australia 20th-century Australian novelists Australian male novelists 20th-century Australian male writers