Max Colwell was originally employed as a wholesale grocer (1941-1961), and has portrayed this in his semi-autobiographical trilogy, the 'Pants' books. After this he became a full-time writer, publishing a number of novels and non-fiction works, and writing drama for radio and television in Australia and New Zealand. He has conducted creative writing classes for schools and for adults, and worked as a journalist on the children's newspaper The Young Australians. He has also transcribed a number of books into Braille and has written numerous books on Ausralian history and a volume of interviews with writers
