Christopher Koch

Christopher Koch studied at University of Tasmania and St Virgil's College. The recorded working language is English. Works named in the authority record are The Year of Living Dangerously, The Boys in the Island, The Doubleman and Highways to a War. Distinctions recorded are Miles Franklin Literary Award and Officer of the Order of Australia.

• Name — Christopher Koch • Honorific Suffix — AO • Birth Name — Christopher John Koch • Born — 16 July 1932 • Birthplace — Hobart, Tasmania, Australia • Died — 23 September 2013 • Place of death — Hobart, Tasmania, Australia • Occupation — Novelist • Language — English • Education — University of Tasmania • Notable Works — The Year of Living Dangerously • Spouse — Robin Whyte-Butler • Children — Gareth Koch • Awards — Miles Franklin Award (1985, 1996) Christopher John Koch AO (16 July 1932 – 23 September 2013) was an Australian novelist, known for his 1978 novel The Year of Living Dangerously, which was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film by the same name for which he co-wrote the screenplay. He twice won the Miles Franklin Award (for The Doubleman in 1985 and Highways to a War in 1996). In 1995, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for his contribution to Australian literature, and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters from his alma mater, the University of Tasmania, in 1990.

Koch was born in Hobart, Tasmania, in 1932. He was educated at Clemes College, St Virgil's College, and Hobart High School and later attended the University of Tasmania. Koch's admission to the university was controversial, with the professorial board refusing to admit him as he had not matriculated with a mathematics subject; however, this refusal was overridden by the chancellor, John Morris, who was then accused of excessive intervention. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in 1954, Koch joined the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) as a cadet journalist. He left Hobart to travel in South Asia and Europe, and ended up in London, where he worked for several years. He returned to Australia to avoid national service in the British Army.

While working in London as a waiter and a teacher, Koch began working on his first novel, The Boys in the Island, which he left with his agent when he returned to Australia. Koch's first published works were several poems published in The Bulletin and the literary journal Southerly. While back at the ABC as a radio producer, The Boys in the Island was published in the UK. The positive reviews encouraged Koch to eventually take up writing full-time in 1972. In the early 1960s, Koch was awarded a writing fellowship to Stanford University, where he taught literature and was associated with Ken Kesey (author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest). • Illustration — Koch's brother, Philip Koch, reporting for ABC-TV in April 1967 towards the end of the Sukarno era His novel The Year of Living Dangerously, set in Jakarta during the fall of the Sukarno regime, was made into a film directed by Peter Weir and starring Sigourney Weaver, Mel Gibson and Linda Hunt. The book was loosely inspired by his brother's (Philip Koch) experience as an Australian journalist in Indonesia during that period. Koch himself had worked for two months in Jakarta in 1968 as an adviser to UNESCO.

Koch died at his home in Hobart on 23 September 2013, aged 81. He had been diagnosed with cancer twelve months earlier.

Koch married his first wife, Irene Vilnonis, in 1959. Their son, Gareth Koch (born 1962), is a classical guitarist. He married his second wife, Robin Whyte-Butler, in the late 1990s, and she lived with him in Sydney and Tasmania, and was with him when he died in 2013.

Christopher Koch is recorded with the occupation children's writer. Recorded as novelist, writer, screenwriter and poet.