Mark Dapin, travel writer: To display my dual Australian-British citizenship, and also to demonstrate my cosmopolitan outlook.
Mark Dapin: So, what’s with all this “Mark Dapin, travel writer”? I thought you were “Mark Dapin, crime writer”.
Mark Dapin, travel writer: That didn’t work out so well.
Mark Dapin: In what way?
Mark Dapin, travel writer: No free overseas trips, for a start.
Mark Dapin: And…
Mark Dapin, travel writer: I couldn’t really make any money out of it – except for selling the rights to the books and getting some TV and movie work.
Mark Dapin: Sounds good to me.
Mark Dapin, travel writer: Yeah, I don’t regret it, but “Mark Dapin, crime writer” didn’t pay the rent. See also “Mark Dapin, historian”.
Mark Dapin: What about “Mark Dapin, award-winning novelist”?
Mark Dapin, travel writer: That went okay for a while, but the wheels seem to have come off it now.
Mark Dapin: It’s not like you to use a motoring metaphor, is it?
Mark Dapin, travel writer: You’re funny.
Mark Dapin: Since you’ve failed your driving test seven times…
Mark Dapin, travel writer: Yeah, yeah.
Mark Dapin: …including once in Fiji.
Mark Dapin, travel writer: That’s my point, see? I got a travel story out of that one.
Mark Dapin: Did you used to be a travel writer anyway?
Mark Dapin, travel writer: Yeah, I guess.
Mark Dapin: You wrote travel stories for The Times and The Guardian in the UK, and The Sydney Morning Herald and Travel+Leisure and many others in Australia. And didn’t you work for Lonely Planet Books for a while?
Mark Dapin, travel writer: Yeah, I co-wrote the Fiji and South Pacific guides.
Mark Dapin: But then you gave it up, didn’t you? I seem to remember you publishing an essay saying you were through with travel writing.
Mark Dapin, travel writer: Yeah, but the most reliable indication that I will do something seems to be if I go into print vowing to never do it again.
Mark Dapin: So, why did you stop?
Mark Dapin, travel writer: I decided to become an academic.
Mark Dapin: And how did that go for you?
Mark Dapin, travel writer: I got a PhD.
Mark Dapin: Congratulations. Do I have to call you “Dr Mark Dapin”?
Dr Mark Dapin, travel writer: Yes.
Mark Dapin: So, what is it that attracts you to travel writing?
Dr Mark Dapin, travel writer: Free travel.
Mark Dapin: Okay, so where do you like to go?
Dr Mark Dapin, travel writer: Europe.
Mark Dapin: I see. Anywhere else?
Dr Mark Dapin, travel writer: Everywhere else.
Mark Dapin: Be specific.
Dr Mark Dapin, travel writer: I want to go to Egypt, Colombia, the Himalaya, Bali. I really like Singapore, too.
Mark Dapin: You seem to enjoy reviewing hotels…
Dr Mark Dapin, travel writer: I love hotels. They’re like living in a flat with a restaurant bar and gym attached. And a cleaner.
Mark Dapin: What else do you love?
Dr Mark Dapin, travel writer: Cruises. I love being on a ship.
Mark Dapin: And…
Dr Mark Dapin, travel writer: History tours. I really enjoy Mat McLachlan’s Battlefield Tours.
Mark Dapin: So you’ve written.
Dr Mark Dapin, travel writer: It’s true! I come back feeling like I’ve taken an undergraduate summer school in military history.
Mark Dapin: Why would you want to do that, when you’ve already got a PhD in Military History?
Dr Mark Dapin, travel writer: My hobby is my work. That’s why I want to be a travel writer.
Mark Dapin: Have you ever thought about combining two of your interests?
Dr Mark Dapin, travel writer: You mean, like, writing a book about true-crime tourism?
Mark Dapin: Yeah.
Dr Mark Dapin, travel writer: That’s my next project. Watch this space.
Mark Dapin: Seriously?
Dr Mark Dapin, travel writer: Yeah, seriously.
Mark Dapin: And until then?
Dr Mark Dapin, travel writer: I’m just looking for more travel writing. I write for Escape and Explore, weekend newspaper supplements that cover a fair chunk of Australia.
Mark Dapin: Well, good luck with that, mate. And thanks.
Dr Mark Dapin, travel writer: Laters.
Mark Dapin: Idiot.
Mark Dapin interviews Mark Dapin for the Third Time
5 March 2022
Mark: Wotcher, cock.
Mark: Nobody says that anymore. Not even in England.
Mark: I know, I’m trying to repopularise it as greeting.
Mark: And how’s that going for me?
Mark: It’s about as successful as the time I invented a joke: “Bloke walks into a fish shop and asks for a battered flathead, so the guy behind the counter beats him to death.” Nobody ever tells it.
Mark: Apart from me.
Mark: Well, I wrote it, didn’t I?
Mark: So, what have I been up to since I last spoke?
Mark: How do you think? I published an airport book when the airports were closed.
Mark: Ah. Er, so… has anything good happened to me?
Mark: Yeah, I worked as consultant producer on a true-crime TV show, Armed and Dangerous, for Network Seven.
Mark: What was that like, then?
Mark: It was really good fun.
Mark: I thought I didn’t like “fun”.
Mark: I don’t generally.
Mark: Did I actually do anything useful on set?
Mark: “On set”? Ooooh, I see I speak TV.
Mark: So, no, then?
Mark: Actually, I wrangled talent, conducted interviews on camera, narrated to camera, directed two shoots remotely (as a talking head on an iPhone) and washed up the cups twice. Off set, I did a lot of research.
Mark: Ooooh!
Mark: Will, I please stop saying “Ooooh!”
Mark: Sure, as soon as I stop trying to impress myself. Anything else going on?
Mark: I’m writing book reviews for The Australian and travel for Explore and The Saturday Paper. Now that we are free to move around again, I want to get back on the road.
Mark: In the air, you mean?
Mark: Pedant.
Mark: I hear I’ve also been doing some subbing work.
Mark: Yeah, and I’ve been enjoying that again too. It’s been a long time.
Mark: Remember when I worked as chief sub at the Australian Airlines in-flight magazine?
Mark: I do, yeah.
Mark: Then deputy chief sub at Woman’s Day then founding chief sub at The Australian Financial Review Magazine?
Mark: Of course. What’s my point?
Mark: I thought a publisher might look at this and offer me some more work.
Mark: Fat chance.
Mark: I never know, though, do I? Anyway, I’ve got to go now.
Mark: Okay, see me.
Mark: Not if I see me first.
Mark Dapin interviews Mark Dapin for the Second Time
August 2020
Mark: So, how are you, Mark? We haven’t talked in a while.
Mark: Yeah, well, I’ve got a busy schedule, you know, mate. I’m not often in the same place as myself. My people have to talk to my people to make it happen.
Mark: Anyhow, we’re here now.
Mark: Apparently.
Mark: So, what’ve you been doing since our last Q&A?
Mark: I have written a true-crime book called Public Enemies, about two Australian armed robbers, Russell ‘Mad Dog’ Cox and Ray ‘mond John’ Denning.
Mark: Where can I see you making an idiot of yourself talking about it on TV?
Mark: Pretty well. Which makes a change for one of my books.
Mark: You must be very happy.
Mark: Sure, but I still look miserable.
Mark: Pensive.
Mark. Yeah, pensive.
Mark: And jowly.
Mark: And your point is…?
Mark: Forget it. I understand Russell Cox wasn’t a mad dog at all.
Mark: He was not. Nor was he a Russell or a Cox.
Mark: So, did you get the title wrong?
Mark: No, mate. Read the book.
Mark: But I wrote it.
Mark: You don’t look brainy enough.
Mark: I’ve got four degrees.
Mark: Of separation?
Mark: No, mate. Of Social Studies, Journalism, History of Art and Military History.
Mark: That and $8.50 will buy you a schooner of Cooper’s.
Mark: Moron. Been up to anything else?
Mark: I did a couple of years screenwriting, on off, for Screentime Australia. Since then, I’ve written a fair bit for Radio National, including a couple of short stories that were well received.
Mark: Who by?
Mark: They’re by me, obviously.
Mark: No, by who were they received well?
Mark: No, you mean, ‘by whom’.
Mark: Whatever.
Mark: Well, many of my neighbours liked them.
Mark: Where can I listen to these short stories, bearing in mind I no longer own a wireless?
Mark: On ABC Radio National. ‘The Canner’ is the second story along in this episode of Corona Tales. My short story, ‘The Big Steel’, is part of the Untrue Crime series I curated for Radio National Fictions.
Mark: How about novels?
Mark: Well, my last novel, R&R, was shortlisted for a Ned Kelly Award. Spirit House was longlisted for the Miles Franklin and shortlisted for a Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize, and my debut, King of the Cross, won a Ned Kelly.
Mark: And how’s your career as a historian going?
Mark: Well, The Nashos’ War won a Nib People’s Choice Award and Alex Buzo Shortlist Prize and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction. Tragically, however, my PhD supervisor, Jeff Grey, died.
Mark: A lot of what we think we know about Australia and the Vietnam War is probably myth. I don’t believe there were any demonstrations against returning servicemen at Australian airports, for example. I think we’ve conflated the actions of the Vietnam War-era anti-war movement with post-war events organised by women’s groups protesting rape in war.
Mark: Sounds boring.
Mark: It’s not. It’s about good history (mine and Jeff’s) and bad history (everyone else’s). I also did a series for Radio National about myth and military history, called Myths of War.
Mark: Why don’t you just stick to writing funny stuff?
Mark: Why don’t you?
Mark: I’m the one who’s doing the interviewing here.
Mark: Yes, I am.
Mark: And you’re still doing journalism?
Mark: Not much.
Mark: What about that piece you wrote about your mate, Graham? I think I read that.
Mark: Oh yeah, you’ll find that here. And you can buy his book here.
