Mark Dapin

An inside account of men's magazines through the eyes of a journo who's been bang in the middle of it. Sex & Money: growing up in the men's magazines is the story of Mark Dapin's rise from the gutter (where he found himself one sad morning with no money and no shoes) to editor-in-chief of Ralph magazine. Along the way, he has his ribs broken by world welterweight boxing champion Kostya Tszyu and his heart broken by supermodel Claudia Schiffer. He visits a lap-dancing club with confessed killer Chopper Read, and hangs out with SAS troopers and Foreign Legionnaires. But the most mercenary and least trustworthy people he meets always wear suits and ties.As he stumbles to bring order to a life spent losing wallets, memories, girlfriends and - at one point - his office door, Dapin tells the history of men's magazines in Australia, from Playboy, Penthouse and The Picture to FHM, Ralph and Men's Health. He explains how women become cover-girls, and how cover-girls become perfect women using Photoshop, airbrushes and an art director's imagination.It's a funny, pointless, beer-sodden adventure that leads him towards the top of the corporate world, where he begins to miss the gutter because it's cleaner.

A landmark history of Australian Jews in the military, from the First Fleet to the recent war in Afghanistan. Over 7000 Jews have fought in Australia's military conflicts, including more than 330 who gave their lives. While Sir John Monash is the best known, in Jewish Anzacs acclaimed writer and historian Mark Dapin reveals the personal, often extraordinary, stories of many other Jewish servicemen and women: from air aces to POWs, from nurses to generals, from generation to generation. Weaving together official records and interviews, private letters, diaries and papers, Dapin explores the diverse lives of his subjects and reflects on their valour, patriotism, mateship, faith and sacrifice.

"Through a Faustian bargain, Edie Kramer has been pulled into the dangerous world of the Immortal Game, where belief makes your nightmares real. Hungry for sport, fears-made-flesh are always raising the stakes. To them, human lives are less than nothing, just pieces on a board. Because of her boyfriend Kian's sacrifice, she's operating under the mysterious Harbinger's aegis, but his patronage could prove as fatal as the opposition. Raw from deepest loss, she's terrified over the deal Kian made for her. Though her very public enemies keep sending foot soldiers - mercenary monsters committed to her destruction - she's not the one playing under a doom clock. Kian has six months . . . unless Edie can save him. And this is a game she can't bear to lose."--provided from Amazon.com.

Why everything you think you know about Australia's Vietnam War is wrong. When journalist and historian Mark Dapin first interviewed Vietnam veterans and wrote about the war, he swallowed (and regurgitated) every popular misconception. He wasn't alone. In Australia's Vietnam, Dapin argues that every stage of Australia's Vietnam War has been misremembered and obscured by myth. He disproves claims that every national serviceman was a volunteer; questions the idea that Australian troops committed atrocities; debunks the fallacy that there were no welcome home parades until 1987; and rebuts the fable that returned soldiers were met by spitting protesters at Australian airports. Australia's Vietnam is a major contribution to the understanding of Australia's experience of the war and will change the way we think about memory and military history.

An inside account of men's magazines through the eyes of a journo who's been bang in the middle of it. Sex & Money: growing up in the men's magazines is the story of Mark Dapin's rise from the gutter (where he found himself one sad morning with no money and no shoes) to editor-in-chief of Ralph magazine. Along the way, he has his ribs broken by world welterweight boxing champion Kostya Tszyu and his heart broken by supermodel Claudia Schiffer. He visits a lap-dancing club with confessed killer Chopper Read, and hangs out with SAS troopers and Foreign Legionnaires. But the most mercenary and least trustworthy people he meets always wear suits and ties.As he stumbles to bring order to a life spent losing wallets, memories, girlfriends and - at one point - his office door, Dapin tells the history of men's magazines in Australia, from Playboy, Penthouse and The Picture to FHM, Ralph and Men's Health. He explains how women become cover-girls, and how cover-girls become perfect women using Photoshop, airbrushes and an art director's imagination.It's a funny, pointless, beer-sodden adventure that leads him towards the top of the corporate world, where he begins to miss the gutter because it's cleaner.

A story of the fall of Singapore and life as a POW, and of a young boy making sense of his future while old men try to live with their past. David is 13 and confused. His mother has left with her lover and dumped David on his grandparents. David's grandfather, Jimmy, is 70. He spends his days at the social club grumbling with his three best friends, all of them Jewish-Australian survivors of the enforced labor camps of the WWII Thai-Burma Railroad. But behind their playful backbiting and irresistible wit, Jimmy and his friends are haunted by the ghosts of long-dead comrades, and the only person Jimmy can confide in is a 13-year-old from a different world.