Mark Cornelius Whittaker (born 29 July 1965 ) is an Australian journalist, non-fiction writer and writing coach. He lives in Berry, New South Wales.

Early life

Whittaker was born in Sydney, New South Wales, the son of horse racing journalist Bill Whittaker, and attended Newington College (1978–1983).

Career

In 1985 Whittaker commenced as a copy boy with 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. In 2005, his book Sins of the Brother was made into a television mini-series, Catching Milat. He regularly writes for the Good Weekend magazine and The Australian newspaper. In 2016, SBS Australia ran a 5-part podcast series called Out of Sight: The Untold Story of Adelaide’s Gay Hate Murders which was written and narrated by Whittaker. The series highlighted gay-hate crimes, including the murder of George Duncan, The Family Murders, and the deaths of David "John" Saint (d. April 1991), Robert Woodland (d. 2004), and Andrew Negre (d. April 2011). The series also connected to SBS's Deep Water (TV series) and its related documentary about other unsolved gay hate crimes in Sydney. In 2019, he investigated the death of Jimmy O'Connell to write and narrate a podcast about the murder, Blood Territory, for Audible.

Awards

Books