Pat Flynn grew up on a Queensland dairy farm.

He was an Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) Tennis scholarship holder from 1984 to 1986 and found himself in pretty esteemed company, practising daily with players such as Darren Cahill, Jason Stoltenberg and Todd Woodbridge.

As a junior Pat’s results were top-notch, winning the Australian Junior Closed title in 1986 and competing in Junior Wimbledon and other international events.

After leaving the AIS he went to the University of Texas at Austin, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism with Honours, before heading off on the professional tennis circuit in the 1990s. He won the Queensland Hardcourt title and was ranked for ten years, but didn’t achieve the professional success he had hoped for.

After a coaching stint, including as South Australian state tennis coach, he became a teacher. When he was 30 he became interested in skateboarding and got his teenage students to teach him. But his passion for skateboarding came to an abrupt end when he badly damaged his ankle ligaments while jumping down some concrete stairs. These days he surfs a few times a week near his home on the Queensland Sunshine Coast and still plays quite a bit of tennis, recently winning the Australian Claycourt 40 and over title.

Observing his students and other young people — their interests, concerns and issues affecting their lives — Pat began writing books for children and young adults. His first novel, Alex Jackson: Grommet, was about a teenage skateboarder. Written in 2001, it blossomed into a series that has been highly acclaimed both in Australia and New Zealand.

Pat has always been interested in fitness and health, and his latest novels — The tuckshop kid and The toilet kid — address issues such as body image, self-esteem and eating disorders among young people. He said he targets reluctant readers and his books try to convey a message that there always needs to be some hope. (ref, interview on ABC Life Matters program 28 July 2009)

The Tuckshop Kid received an Honour Book prize in the 2007 Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Awards and was short-listed for the Queensland Premier’s Award. Another novel, To the light, was short-listed for the 2006 CBCA Awards.
His novel The line formation, released in the United States in 2008 as Out of his league, was nominated for the 2009 Pennsylvania School Library Association Top Forty young adult list.