Ken Spillman
Dr Ken Spillman (1976) is the son of Pat nee Smith and John Spillman (1949), who attended St Ildephonsus College, New Norcia, in the 1940s with his brother, Kevin Spillman (1953).
Ken came to Marist Junior College in Subiaco in Year 7, the year his family moved to Wembley Downs. He graduated from Marist Senior College, Churchlands, in 1976. His sister Lyn Spillman (1974) graduated from Siena Girls’ High School, and his younger sisters Jan Spillman (1978) and Leane Spillman (1982) attended Newman. Encouraged to write while at school, Ken published his earliest work while still in his teens. For many years he worked as a literary critic and non-fiction writer on works such as ‘Identity Prized: a History of Subiaco’ (1985) before launching his first full-length fiction, ‘Blue’ (1999). He has since published more than 75 works of fiction aimed at both adults and children, and has been shortlisted for, or won numerous prizes. He has also written over 25 books of non-fiction.
Last year was a huge year for Ken, with the release of 13 new books (of which 11 were children’s books for Scholastic Asia), and the launch of a book published in 2022. He co-authored the other two books; one published by HarperCollins, ‘More Than I Am’, and another titled ‘Secret Agent, Unsung Hero’, which he wrote with Hon Peter Dowding SC (former Premier of WA, 1988-1990). This is a biography of Peter’s uncle, Bruce Dowding, who worked with the French Resistance and was beheaded by the Nazis. Ken says the project gave him an intense immersion in the 1930s and 1940s, and took him back to the study of Nazi Germany in the Marist College classroom, where a very young teacher, Frank Egan (1971), first excited him about writing history. Frank was a Marist College Old Boy and taught Geography, History, Social Studies and Religion at his alma mater from 1972 to 1983. In acknowledgement of Frank’s encouragement all those years ago, Ken sent him a copy of the book.
This year Ken is working on his third biography, about a man who came out to WA in 1849 with the Benedictines. (The Benedictines founded New Norcia and, a few years later, a second monastery near Perth which gave Subiaco its name.) Ken also generously hosted a table at our Year 12 Careers’ Breakfast earlier this year, and inspired some of our students considering a future in writing!