Mark Dapin

MARK DAPIN INTERVIEWS MARK DAPIN

People have been asking questions about you, Mark. Frequently asked questions.
“What do they want to know, Mark?”

Who you are, where you're from, why your legs seem shorter than your body.
“I was born in Leeds, England, in 1963. My dad was a clothing factory worker who became a greetings-card salesman, my mum was a nurse. When I was 10 years old, my mum left my dad for a student who had been lodging in our house. They got married and we moved to the garrison town of Aldershot, Hampshire.”

You seem to be dodging the question about your legs.
“I think it's because I'm wearing my polo shirt over my jeans, and the picture was taken from below.”

I've read your critically acclaimed new novel, King of the Cross. My advice: don't give up your day job. What is your day job, by the way?
“I'm a features journalist, and I write a very popular weekly column in Good Weekend magazine in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.”

How did you become a journalist?
“I lied that I already was one. I used to work as a typesetter, so I understood the technology and the terminology. And I had a degree in sociology, but I only include that because it rhymes.”

Do you have any other degrees?
“Yes, I have an MA Journalism from UTS and a Bachelor of General Studies majoring in the History of Art from Griffith University .”

And yet you used to work on men's magazines, so you must be stupid.
“It's a paradox, I admit.”

Have you written any other books, apart from Strange Country and King of the Cross?
“Yes. Sex & Money (2004) about working on men's magazines, and Fridge Magnets are Bastards (2007) about bastard fridge magnets. You can buy them on amazon.com.”

Why aren't they on this website?
“Different publishers, mate. They pretend to be friends, but they despise each other's intestines.”

Mark, you're just a hack. What made you think you could write a novel? Aren't there enough out there already? Why didn't you just leave it in your bottom drawer?
“Well, Mark I've been writing fiction since before I became a journalist. I had my first short story professionally published when I was 15 years old, in a WH Smiths Children as Writers anthology in the UK. Since I came to Australia in 1989, I have written short stories for Meanjin, Penthouse, Woman's Day, Ita magazine and others. This is my fifth completed novel in about 30 years. The other four were crap.”

How do you know this isn't crap too?
“Well, Andrew Rule liked it.”

He's your mate, though, isn't he?
“I do know him, yeah.”

This is a book about organised crime. What do you know about organised crime?
“I've met and interviewed a few gangsters. I've also met crooked cops and I knew a couple of Hells Angels. My old boxing trainer was an armed robber or something. As a contributing editor to Penthouse, I wrote about sex and crime for a couple of years.”

Are you a criminal yourself?
“I was once bound over to keep the peace for a year, on a charge of drunk and disorderly. This was a victimless crime, and I decided not to make a career of it. Except in the obvious sense.”

Is your novel based on fact?
“It's based on real incidents, but not real people. I have never met any of the crims or businesspeople – not that there was much of a distinction between them – involved in the Battle of Victoria Street. I have made no attempt to find out anything about their true personalities. As far as I know, none of them spoke or acted in the way I've portrayed them.”

What made you write this book?
“I'm fascinated by the way criminals justify their actions. King of the Cross is an attempt to explore the arrogance of evil. It's about how some people think their life is the only one that's important. It also looks at the charisma of amoral men. The best crims – like the best dates – often have a good sense of humour.”

Your novel is set in Kings Cross. You're a Pom. What do you know about Kings Cross?
“I lived there for a while when I first came to Australia. And I'm a naturalised Aussie now, with an Aussie partner and two Aussie kids.”

Well, you still sound like a Pom.
“Yeah, sorry about that.”

There's a lot about the sex industry in the book.
“Like I said, I worked for Penthouse. I know the turf.”

You look like a thug (although your legs are too short) but you've recently started to stress your academic qualifications. Is that just because you don't just want to be known as the former editor of men's magazines?
“Yeah, it is actually.”

So, you're a fraud as well as hack.
“Yeah, Mark. You've got my number, that's for sure.”