Career
Fatchen spent his childhood on an Adelaide Plains farm at Angle Vale. He learned to drive a team of Clydesdale horses and did part of his High School studies at home, driving his horse and buggy in once a week to Gawler High School to get his papers corrected. Later he entered journalism as a copy boy and after five years in the Australian Army and Royal Australian Air Force during World World War II became a journalist with The News and later The Advertiser.
He covered many major stories in Australia and overseas.
He began writing for children in 1966 (The River Kings) and has been writing for them ever since. He wrote 20 books; his novels appear in seven countries and his poetry throughout the English-speaking world.
He wrote for children in the primary school group. His book The River Kings was produced as a television mini-series in 1991.
He has also written lots of children"s poems like "Just fancy that"
He died on 14 October 2012 in his sleep.
