Bryce Courtenay AM

Speaker Profile

In Memoriam
1933 - 2012

It is with great sadness that we mourn the passing of Arthur Bryce Courtenay AM, one of Australia's best known, best loved and most successful novelists, and a friend of the Saxton team for many years. Bryce passed away on 22 November, 2012 at his home in Canberra after a battle with gastric cancer. He is survived by his wife Christine, and two sons from his first marriage.



Born in South Africa, Bryce Courtenay was educated in Johannesburg and the UK. He arrived in Australia in 1958 and became an Australian citizen the following year.

He entered advertising and over a career spanning 34 years was the Creative Director of McCann Erickson, J.Walter Thompson & George Patterson Advertising, and much awarded both in Australia and overseas.

As a lecturer and speaker he was invited by the Chinese Government to give the first series of lectures on the subject of Advertising and Free Enterprise. He has lectured on the power of the individual to achieve any end purpose in Asia, the UK, the USA, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and in his own country and is rated as one of the top five speakers in Australia.

He became famous as Australia's top selling novelist with titles such as The Power of One (translated into 11 languages and the subject of a major movie of the same name), Tandia, April Fool's Day, The Potato Factory, Tommo & Hawk, The Family Frying Pan, A Recipe for Dreaming, The Night Country, Jessica, Solomon's Song, Smoky Joe's Café, Four Fires, Matthew Flinders' Cat, Brother Fish, Whitethorn, Sylvia, The Persimmon Tree, Fishing for Stars, The Story of Danny Dunn, Fortune Cookie and his final work, Jack of Diamonds.

In 1995 Bryce Courtenay was awarded The Order of Australia AM and in 2005 an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) from the University of Newcastle. In 2010 he was honoured on an Australian post stamp as an Australia Post Literary Legend.

We fondly remember Bryce and our thoughts are with his family. He will be sadly missed.

The Team at Saxton.