During his lifetime, Alan Marshall enoyed one of the finest rewards that any country can give to a writer – he knew that his writing had been taken into the hearts of the Australian people. More than four million copies of his books had been sold, and he had been translated into more than forty languages. He had received national, academic and international honours, and had given unstintingly of his time to further the interests of the handicapped and to promote peace and friendship between peoples. Yet he remained a man of the people, able to establish warm relationships with all he met, even those separated from him by the barrier of language, and proud that his stories appealed to readers from all ages and all parts of society.