Vale Max Fatchen

A truly wonderful Adelaide writer, Max Fatchen passed away early this morning aged 92 at his home in Gawler. Mr Fatchen was not someone who I knew personally, but someone who I felt that I knew through reading his column in The Advertiser every Saturday for many years. Through his weekly column, we knew that he drove an old Holden Torana that he had owned since new (sadly, the Torana was stolen, torched and stripped a few years ago,) enjoyed his weekly trips to the supermarket (back when I worked for Coles I always used to secretly wish that he would visit my supermarket,) and his obsession with foods that he was no longer allowed to eat. 

Throughout his long career, Max Fatchen gathered many enviable achievements as a writer. He worked  as a journalist for The News from 1948 to 1955 and then for The Advertiser until he retired in 1984. He began writing children's books in the 1960s, one of which was The River Kings. And my own favourite Max Fatchen moment? It was the column he wrote about fellow South Australian writer Colin Thiele in September 2006. 

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