Maxwell Edgar Fatchen, AM (3 August 1920 – 14 October 2012) was an Australian children’s writer and journalist. (Wikipedia)
Further, he was my maternal grandfather’s cousin. Grandma was always somewhat proud of this and keen on his writings, especially his regular column in the Adelaide Advertiser. She used to send me clippings, many of which I pasted into scrapbooks.
I’ve now photographed and scanned many of these as some form of record and tribute.
If you are new to Max’s writings, I recommend starting with Unacustard as I am…—it’s a pretty good intro to his style of humour.
I have tended, out of personal taste, to prefer his light-hearted prose pieces, but there are a few examples of his verses and a few of his more serious articles, these latter tagged “Saturday Spread” as that was usually the Advertiser column they were published under.
Enjoy…
Browse Max’s work
(full list of what’s on this site—see below the list for links to a couple of smaller subsets grouped by tags)
- A handyman
- A long run to Victor
- A reverie of (tommy) ruffs
- All stops out for a rest
- An earth father with a mossy mind reflects in tranquillity
- An overhanging tale
- And so to bed
- Angle to brush up the shack
- Anything we can do, they can do..?
- Attention, all retiring chairpersonnel!
- Bleeps give the pip
- Brought to a head
- Bubbling feeling when you wish upon a spa
- Bush scrubs up as a beauty
- Christmas mail for the Country Cousins
- COLQUHOUN—Thank you, Max, for everything
- Country Thunder Down Under goes to town
- Crackpot set for breakdown in role-reversal kitchen
- Cry havoc, let slip the kids
- Cup-Cake Casanova
Tagged subsets of Max’s writings
If you just prefer a straightforward, non-paginated listing, it’s here (but it’s quite long!)