Bryce Courtenay

He met Benita Solomon, an Australian woman, in 1955 while studying in London. They emigrated to Sydney in 1958 and got married the following year. The couple had three sons: Brett, Adam, and Damon.

His youngest son, Damon, was born with the blood condition haemophilia and contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion. He died in 1991 at the age of 24.

Bryce Courtenay and Benita divorced in 2000 after 42 years of marriage. He later married Christine Gee.

He was born as Arthur Bryce Courtenay on 14 August 1933 in Lembombo Mountains, South Africa to Maude Greer, a dressmaker, and Arthur Ryder, a clothing salesman. He was an illegitimate child as his parents were not married to each other. His father was already married to someone else but maintained a relationship with Maude which resulted in the birth of Bryce and his sister.

By his own accounts, he spent several years of his childhood in orphanages, though this claim has been questioned in recent years. He had stated that he was often bullied and thus took to story-telling in order to distract the bullies. He also learned to box during this time as a means of self-defense.

He received his early education from King Edward VII School. He took up a job in a copper mine to earn his livelihood and when he had enough savings, moved to London to study journalism. There he met and fell in love with an Australian woman whom he followed to Australia.

After moving to Australia in 1958 he started looking for opportunities to establish himself as a journalist. In spite of all his efforts he could not become a journalist and thus started writing advertising copy.

A creative and intelligent man, he found considerable success in his advertising career. As an advertising executive he is credited to have created several award-winning campaigns including ‘Louie the Fly’, the original Milkybar Kid commercial and the Australian Labor Party's 1972 election campaign, ‘It's Time’.

He had always wanted to write and as a young man had planned to quit the advertising field at the age of 35 and focus on writing. But one of his sons had a serious medical condition and thus he continued working in advertising as he needed the financial security of a stable job.

By the late 1980s he had risen to the top in the advertising industry, and had served as the Creative Director of McCann Erickson, J. Walter Thompson and George Patterson Advertising.

But he was also highly stressed out due to which he began to drink heavily and smoked up to a hundred cigarettes a day. The realization hit him that he needed to change his habits and focus on rebuilding his life. Thus he decided to finally chase his long-cherished dream of writing.

His novel, ‘The Power of One’—undoubtedly his most famous work—not only made him a popular literary figure in Australia, but also earned him International acclaim. It has been translated into 18 languages, has sold more than 8 million copies and was made into a Hollywood film in 1992.