John Silvester of Underbelly fame…
My name is John Silvester and I have been reporting and writing about crime in Melbourne for more than 30 years.
This has given me the chance to observe both the best and worst of human nature.
I have seen people consumed by the atrocious crimes they have committed and others who have been able to rise again after becoming victims to violence.
I report for The Age newspaper and also write a column that appears in Saturday’s edition. I have a chat about crime on 3AW’s breakfast program every Wednesday just after 8pm.
With my writing partner, Andrew Rule, we have written and published more than 30 books that have sold more than one million copies. The best known of these are the Mark Brandon “Chopper” Read series and the Underbelly books that have been turned into the television series of the same name.
We have found that people are fascinated by true crime and we have tried to tell these stories in a way, which captures the feelings surrounding the events as well as the facts.
Sometimes we may incorporate black humour into the stories and at others times we try and explain the heartbreaking aftermath that results from just one crime.
I will be coming to have a chat with you next week so if any of you want to contact me before hand just use the ‘comments’ function here on the blog.
Regards.
If you want edit me? Go to your profile than add description text. ^_*
July 28th, 2011 at 2:20 pm
Hi John,
I’m looking forward to meeting you on Friday 12th.
I’m interested to know about the process that lead to you starting up your own publishing company, having written the Underbelly books that are so hugely popular. Did you have trouble selling the idea to publishers originally?
The boys at Scotch are very keen to hear you speak.
Cheers
August 1st, 2011 at 9:14 pm
Hi Mr Silvester
Firstly, I am a big fan of the Underbelly series, despite the fact that I am grossly underage, :P. So keep up the great work!
I have 2 questions
1. Are shows such as Bones and NCIS riddled with forensic inaccuracy? Is the power of the common murderer exaggerated?
2.How do you define right and wrong? Or more specifically, where do humans base the concept of right or wrong?
Right is wrong and wrong is right. It is all down to perspective. In a what society percieves as a psychopath, might think that action x is perfectly ‘normal’ where as another person might consider action X horrific. But in the end, isn’t whoever has the bigger club or the bigger muscle that wins and gets to put his point of view throughout their conquered subjects?
Lyosha Zmyeevich
August 3rd, 2011 at 1:13 pm
HELLO MR SYLVESTER,
I HAVE GREAT RESPECT FOR AUTHORS AND UNDERSTAND HOW DIFFICULT CRIME WRITING CAN BE. CRIME CAN SOMETIMES BE THE MOST CLICHE STYLE OF WRITING HOWEVER I APPLAUD YOUR SUCCESS IN WRITING SOMETHING THAT IS BOTH ORIGINAL, INTERESTING AND WITTY. HOWEVER I HAVE A FEW QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR WORK AND FIELD…
Does a show like the underbelly series simply objectify criminals. It may be an insight into the criminal world, however does it not normalise heavy violence and language and prop these people who’s normal way of life is breaking the law and ripping off, endangering and destroying hundreds of lives. Is it really justified to create scenarios where people begin to sympathise with ‘monsters’? How can we say that these criminals deserve the ‘respect’ that some people may be developing in? An example of this is the Godfather. Is the essence of this film something that should be repeated , changed and/or continued? Is is ethical to prop up criminal or is is it just a part of human nature to want to see the best in people no matter what they do.
I’M REALLY THANKFUL THAT YOU ARE COMING TO SCOTCH AND II’M REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO TALKING TO YOU!
KAPS_LOCK_ED
August 3rd, 2011 at 4:08 pm
Hi,
It is a balance to refrain from glorifying criminals while telling the full story. In the books we will often put some lines in poking fun at them to deflate their egos. In the case of Underbelly most of the crooks ended up dead or in jail. Too late they realised that real life wasn’t like a movie.
August 3rd, 2011 at 4:19 pm
Hi Ms Morris,
No-one in their right mind would publish our first stuff, which was the Chopper series. We just thought we would try and keep control of it all if we could write, edit and lay-out the books ourselves.
Obviously the profit margain would be greater if we were the authors and publishers.
Turned out to be harder than it looked but at least no-one could boss us around and we were able to keep all our bad gags in the copy without an outside editor trying to boss us about.
August 3rd, 2011 at 4:23 pm
Hi Lyosha,
Most murderers are stupid. That is why the solution rate is over 90 percent. Many TV shows make basic mistakes that can be annoying. My family have banned me from watching them because I end up yelling at the TV.
Maybe I should get out more.
Cheers