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 oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

. Flanagan also writes opinion pieces, some of which are examinations of

Australian culture The culture of Australia is primarily a Western culture, originally derived from Britain but also influenced by the unique geography of Australia and the cultural input of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and other Australian people. The Bri ...

and the relationship between

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

and non-Indigenous Australians.

Life and career

Martin Flanagan is one of six children of Arch Flanagan, a survivor of the Burma

Death Railway The Burma Railway, also known as the Siam–Burma Railway, Thai–Burma Railway and similar names, or as the Death Railway, is a railway between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat, Burma (now called Myanmar). It was built from 1940 to 1943 ...

. He is descended from Irish

convicts A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and 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 common label for former convict ...

transported to

Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration of Australia in the 19th century. A British settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land in 1803 before it became a sepa ...

in the 1840s. He grew up in

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

, 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, one of the university's residential colleges, first pro ...

, and now lives in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

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

, 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 The history wars is a term used in Australia to describe the public debate about the interpretation of the history of the European colonisation of Australia and the development of contemporary Australian society, particularly with regard to th ...

" 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 Bruce Myles (born 29 November 1940) is an Australian actor and film director. He has appeared in 40 films and television shows since 1963. In 1987, along with Michael Pattinson, he co-directed the film ''Ground Zero''. It was entered into the 3 ...

adapted ''The Call'' into a stage play of the same name, which premiered at Melbourne's

Malthouse Theatre Malthouse Theatre is the resident theatre company of The Malthouse building in Southbank, part of the Melbourne Arts Precinct. In the 1980s it was known as the Playbox Theatre Company and was housed in the Playbox Theatre in Melbourne's CBD. A ...

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 Line most often refers to: * Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity * Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to: Arts ...

'' (2005) with his father Arch Flanagan, and ''The Fight'' (2006) with

Tom Uren Thomas Uren (28 May 1921 – 26 January 2015) was an Australian politician and Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party from 1975 to 1977. Uren served as the Member for Reid in the Australian House of Representatives from 1958 to 1990, bei ...

. Flanagan has also written biographies of Australian rules footballers: ''Richo'' (2010) on Matthew Richardson and ''The Short Long Book'' (2015) on Michael Long.

Bibliography

Novels

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

Poetry

* ''Shorts: Poems'' (1984)

Children's

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

Non-Fiction

* ''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

* ''Richo'' (2010) with Matthew Richardson * ''The Short Long Book'' (2015) with Michael Long * '' A Wink from the Universe'' (2018) memoir * ''The Tom Wills Picture Show'' (2018) * ''The Art of Pollination: A Year with the Irrepressible

Jane Tewson Jane Tewson CBE (born 9 January 1958) is a British charity worker and the originator of several charitable organisations and ideas for community strengthening in the UK and Australia. Early life and education Tewson is the daughter of Edward T ...

'' (2020)

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