AUSTRALIA AUTHOR · HISTORY
Mark Dapin
Mark Dapin is an Australian journalist, author, historian and screenwriter. Dapin was born in Britain and migrated to Australia in 1989. (More on [Wikipedia]).
It was a morning as bleak as the times.
— from Public enemies
Most acclaimed
Jewish Anzacs
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."--Dust jacket.
Public enemies
The gripping and revealing inside story of Australia's most notorious armed robbers. In the Australia of the 1960s, 70s and 80s, armed robbers were the top of the criminal food chain. Their dash and violence were celebrated, and men like Russell 'Mad Dog' Cox and Ray Denning were household names long before Underbelly established Melbourne's gangland thugs as celebrities. Cox and Denning were once Australian Public Enemies Number One and Two. Both were handsome, charismatic bandits who refused to bow to authority. Both were classified as 'intractable' in prison, and both escaped. Cox was the only man to escape from Katingal, Australia's only 'escape-proof' jail. Soon after he broke out, he tried to break in again and rescue his mates. Their story is one of violence and crime, but it is also about the unimaginable horrors that young boys faced when condemned to 'institutions' in the 1960s, and the terrible conditions in Australian jails in the 70s and 80s. These were the hells where a whole generation of armed robbers was forged. Mark Dapin brings his brilliant research skills and distinctive, powerful narrative style to a book that explores the life of these infamous yet respected public enemies and the criminal world they inhabited. From armed robberies, shootings and bashings to prison floggings and jail breaks, this is the gritty, page-turning reality behind the headlines.
Sex & Money
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.