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John Anthony Flanagan is an Australian fantasy author best known for his medieval fantasy series, the Ranger's Apprentice, and its sister series, the Brotherband Chronicles. Some of his other works include his Storm Peak duology, as well as the adult novel The Grey Raider.

Early Life and Careers
John Flanagan was born in Sydney, Australia on 22 May 1944. He graduated from Waverley College with plans to become a writer. As he grew up, he changed careers and got a job at an advertising agency. He originally planned to become a trainee copywriter, but they instead assigned him to train as a media researcher. While working as a media researcher trainee, he wrote an offensive poem directed toward one of his senior executives. Eventually the poem made it to the desk of one of the company's directors. Flanagan got called into the directors office where he complimented Flanagan's writing skills and offered him the job of trainee copywriter. After working in the advertisement agency for 20 years, Flanagan entered the TV industry and co-wrote a sitcom called Hey Dad..!.

Becoming a Writer
Flanagan's early novels originated as mainly thrillers. He started working on what would become the Ranger's Apprentice series in the 1990s. The series originated as twenty short stories for his twelve-year-old son, Michael. Flanagan wanted to encourage his son to read and hoped that he could do so by convincing Michael that the stories were children's book ideas that his father wanted to test out. Also, since Michael was on the smaller side, Flanagan wanted to encourage him by showing that not all heroes must be big and strong. His son fell in love with the series and began asking for more of the stories. In the early 2000s, John decided to make the stories into the first novel, The Ruins of Gorlan, and it became published in 2004. Currently, there are 12 books in the Ranger's Apprentice series. His other series, Brotherband, was based around Flanagan's passion and love of the sea

Achievements

 * In 2008, he won the Australian Publishers Association's Book of the Year for "Older Children and the International Success Award" for Erak's Ransom.
 * The series appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers List and regularly get shortlisted for children's book awards in Australia and overseas.
 * The Ranger's Apprentice: The Ruins of Gorlan became optioned as a movie.