Career
He also writes opinion pieces, some of which are examinations of Australian culture and the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Flanagan has written thirteen books, including the novel, an "historical imagining" into the life of Tom Wills, the enigmatic father of Australian rules football and captain-coach of the first Aboriginal cricket team Flanagan portrays Wills as a tragic figure caught between white and black Australia, and postulates that the Aboriginal game of Marngrook influenced his conception of Australian rules football.
Flanagan subsequently became embroiled in football"s "history wars" which entered the national media in 2008, the year of the game"s 150th anniversary celebrations.
He Bruce Myles adapted The Call into a play of the same name in 2004. The Game in Time of War (2003) is a collection of essays Flanagan wrote on the role that Australian rules football plays during wartime.
He co-authored the non-fiction books The Lincolnshire (2005) with his father Architecture Flanagan, and The Fight (2006) with Tom Uren. Flanagan has also written biographies of Australian rules footbllers: Richo (2010) on Matthew Richardson and The Short Long Book (2015) on Michael Long.
Martin Flanagan is one of six children of Architecture Flanagan, a survivor of the Burma Death Railway.
He is descended from Irish convicts transported to Van Diemen"s Land in the 1840s. He grew up in Tasmania, and now lives in Melbourne.