John Silvester is an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n journalist and crime writer. He has written for major Melbourne based newspapers such as The Age

The Age

The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...

, the Sunday Herald Sun and others. Silvester has also co-written a number of bestselling books with Andrew Rule, based on crime in Melbourne

Crime in Melbourne

Crime in Melbourne refers to criminal activity in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. One of the main functions of Victoria Police is to detect criminal activity, and prosecutions take place in the Victorian court system....

. Some of their works formed the basis of the hit Australian tv series Underbelly

Underbelly (series)

Underbelly is an Australian television true crime-drama which originally broadcast on the Nine Network. Each series contains 13 episodes and is based on real-life events including the Melbourne gangland killings between 1995-2004, the Griffith drug trade between 1976-1987, and the Kings Cross scene...

. He also appears weekly on 3AW

3AW

3AW is a talkback radio station in Melbourne, Australia on 693 kHz AM. It began transmission on 22 February 1932 as Melbourne's fifth commercial radio station.-History:...

's breakfast program as "Sly of the Underworld".

Silvester received a Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 in politics and law at La Trobe University

La Trobe University

La Trobe University is a multi-campus university in Victoria, Australia. It was established in 1964 by an Act of Parliament to become the third oldest university in the state of Victoria. The main campus of La Trobe is located in the Melbourne suburb of Bundoora; two other major campuses are...

 in 1978, according to an article in the university's Alumni newsletter, Agora, which also stated that his father, Fred, was a former Victoria Police

Victoria Police

Victoria Police is the primary law enforcement agency of Victoria, Australia. , the Victoria Police has over 12,190 sworn members, along with over 400 recruits, reservists and Protective Service Officers, and over 2,900 civilian staff across 393 police stations.-Early history:The Victoria Police...

 Assistant Commissioner

Assistant Commissioner

Assistant commissioner is a rank used in many police forces across the globe. It is also a rank used in revenue administrations in many countries.-Australia:...

, and head of the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence.

According to his profile at The Age:

"John Silvester has been a crime reporter in Melbourne since 1979, moving to The Age in 1993. He has worked with The Sunday Times insight team in London, won an ASEAN-AJA scholarship to study crime and corruption in South East Asia and has given evidence at Royal Commissions on police corruption. Silvester has published more than 20 crime books. He has won a Walkley award, three Quills, a Ned Kelly award for true crime writing and three Victorian Law awards. He appears regularly on radio station 3aw to discuss crime matters."

John Silvester was nominated state finalist for a Walkley Award in 1988, 1996 and a national finalist in 2003, finally winning in the category Best use of the medium in 2004.

John Silvester is also a passionate supporter of the Hawthorn Football Club.