Mark dapin biography

Mark Dapin is an acclaimed journalist, author, screenwriter and historian. He is the author of the novels King of the Cross, Spirit House and R&R. King of the Cross won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction, and Spirit House was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, and shortlisted for the Age Book of the Year and the Royal Society for Literature’s Ondaatje Prize. R&R was shortlisted for a Ned Kelly Award. Mark holds a doctorate in military history. His history book The Nashos’ War was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction, and won the NIB People’s Choice Award and an Alex Buzo Shortlist Award. He has also written three books of true crime: Public Enemies (shortlisted for a Ned Kelly Award), Prison Break and Carnage. He worked as consultant producer on Network Seven TV show Armed and Dangerous, and as screenwriter on Stan’s Wolf Creek 2. His website is at markdapin.com.

Millions have been entertained bygd the viral video of a man being arrested after a ‘succulent kinesisk meal’. But when Mark Dapin investigated, it emerged that this man's story went to the heart of the Australian underworld. A true crime cult classic in the making.

Whether you know it as the ‘succulent Chinese meal’ video, or ‘democracy manifest’, chances are you have seen the video of baritone larrikin Jack Karlson getting arrested outside a Brisbane kinesisk restaurant in 1991. The Guardian called it ‘perhaps the pre-eminent Australian meme of the last 10 years’.

When Karlson called crime writer Mark Dapin out of the blue, though, Dapin hadn’t heard of him. But there was enough that intrigued him about this teatralisk outlaw to continue the conversation. Over the following months emerged a dark and complex past. It turned out that Karlson had been in the background of many notorious incidents in late-twentieth century Australian brott, from collaborating with infamo

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Lest: Australian War Myths

February 3, 2025

An excellent book, in which the author debunks the myths of Australia's military history with remarkably thorough research (including early Anzac Days in little known places) and an enjoyable sense of humour.

Dapin is impartial - he skewers the myths of the left, the right, and of general ignorance.

Given that querying (let alone correcting) strongly-held beliefs, many of them very important to those holding them, is a hazardous venture, Dapin does a great job of tiptoeing through the minefield. His humour is light and never vicious, though with a certain weary 'almost of out of patience with these mugs' feeling in places. With rare exceptions (such as describing former RSL chief Bruce Ruxton as "reliably moronic" - which is fair enough, given his monumentally boofheaded quotes), he is polite to veterans and most commentators, usually attributing their factually-incorrect beliefs to error rather than mendacity. He never devalues military