Mark Whittaker 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 Walkley Award

Walkley Awards

The annual Walkley Awards, under the administration of the Walkley Foundation for Journalism, are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. Finalists are chosen by an independent board of eminent journalists and photographers. The awards cover all media including...

 winning journalist and widely published non-fiction writer.

Early life

Whittaker was born in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, New South Wales, the son of journalist Bill Whittaker

Bill Whittaker (journalist)

Bill Whittaker is in the horse racing hall of fame in Melbourne for being a horse racing journalist....

, and attended Newington College

Newington College

Newington College is an independent, Uniting Church, day and boarding school for boys, located in Stanmore, an inner-western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....

 (1978–1983).

Writing career

In 1985 Whittaker commenced as a copy boy with News Limited

News Limited

News Limited is one of Australia's largest diversified media companies. The publicly listed company's interests span newspaper and magazine publishing, Internet, Pay TV, National Rugby League, market research, DVD and film distribution, and film and television production trading assets.News Limited...

 and became a staff writer on The Weekend Australian Magazine in 1993. Seven years later he left the Magazine to travel around Australia and write. He later rejoined The Weekend Australian Magazine as a part-time staff writer.

Awards

Whittaker and his wife and co-author, Amy Willesee, won the 2002 Asia-Pacific Travel Writing Award for their book on the Kathmandu royals murders.

In 2005, Whittaker won the Walkley Award for Magazine Feature Writing for The Weekend Australian article "Ordinary Heroes" about the people who attempted to rescue children – including Sophie Delezio

Sophie Delezio

Sophie Joy Delezio is an Australian schoolgirl, the first daughter of Ron Delezio and Carolyn Martin and younger sister of Mitchell Delezio...

 and Molly Wood

Molly Wood

Molly Kristin Wood is an executive editor at CNET.com and previously a writer for Associated Press, MacHome Journal magazine, and O'Reilly Media. Wood hosted the "Gadgettes"...

– from a burning childcare centre. The following year he won News Ltd's News Award for Features Journalist of the Year.

Publications

• Bomber: From Vietnam to Hell and Back
  Mark Whittaker and Tony Bower-Miles (Syd, Pan Macmillan Australia 2009) ISBN 9781405039352
• Ten Years
  Roseanne Catt with Mark Whittaker and Amy Willesee (Syd, Pan Macmillan Australia 2005) ISBN 0732911907
• Love & Death in Kathmandu: A Strange Tale of Royal Murder
  Mark Whittaker and Amy Willesee (Syd, Macmillan 2003) ISBN 073291177X
• Walking to victory
  Adam Gilchrist with Mark Whittaker (Syd, Macmillan 2003 ISBN 0732911389
• The Road to Mount Buggery: A journey through the curiously named places of Australia
  Mark Whittaker and Amy Willesee (Syd, Pan Macmillan 2001) ISBN 0732911117
• Sins of the brother: The definitive story of Ivan Milat and the Backpacker Murders
  Mark Whittaker and Les Kennedy (Syd, Macmillan 1998) ISBN 0732909686
• Granny Killer: The Story of John Glover
  Mark Whittaker and Les Kennedy (Syd, Collins/Angus & Robertson 1992) ISBN 020717766X