Though born in South Australia, Eric Maddern settled in England with his family at the age of eleven. During his teens he travelled extensively throughout Norway, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, eventually studying theatre and social psychology at the University of Sheffield.
After more travel and study he returned to Australia working as as a psychologist with troubled youth and joined CAT, a community arts team that toured remote outback settlements performing songs and sketches. He worked for four years in the Aboriginal communities of Central Australia with the Araluen Bush Arts Team, based in Alice Springs.
On his return to Britain he toured a show about Aboriginal Australia and worked as an educational co-ordinator at the Commonwealth Institute for an exhibition on human origins, which involved writing a book for teachers and directing a play taking children back 30,000 years to meet their ancestors. His first two publications came out of this work, Earth Story (1988) and Life Story (1988).
A teacher, storyteller, author, singer and songwriter, Eric Maddern has become a story teller of local, national and international fame and over the last fifteen years has created Cae Mabon, a beautiful retreat centre in Snowdonia. In 2001 he performed at the Australian National Storytelling Confest in Adelaide.
