His non-fiction works include 100 Great Australians, Jacka VC, Bravest, Kill The Tiger, Backs to the Wall and the memoir War Babies. He is the author of the best-selling novels, The Queenslander, The Paper Castle, Fire in the Blood and Juryman which was adapted to the screen in 1992 as a major MGM production titled Storyville, starring James Spader and Jason Robards.
His major Chinese/Australian work (with Peter Thompson), Morrison of China is the extraordinary true story of the life of George Ernest Morrison, known in his day as 'Chinese Morrison', one of history's great journalists and adventurers. The book has also been translated into Mandarin.
He and Peter have recently completed a sensational, independent history of Australia's biggest corporation, entitled The Big Fella - The Rise and Rise of BHP Billiton. It will be published by Random House in July 2009.
For 20 years he was a journalist with The Age and The Bulletin and was Associate Editor of The Canberra Times until April 2003. Since then he has been a fulltime writer.
Robert Macklin and his wife and partner Wendy Macklin - herself an outstanding teacher - will edit and arrange the contributions to My Favourite Teacher, and conduct the interviews throughout the country.
Robert Macklin's biography of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is in its second Australian edition and already has two translated editions in China in both simplified and complex Mandarin. It was short-listed in 2008 for the ACT Book of the Year Award.
Wendy Macklin has been a teacher in NSW and the ACT for more than 30 years. She is an early childhood and music specialist and continues as a relief teacher on Canberra's southside where she is much in demand. In addition to her NSW Teachers' College qualification she returned to the University of Canberra in 2000 and took a B. Ed majoring in English as a Second Language with special emphasis on music as a teaching aid.
She has written many articles for The Canberra Times and a variety of magazines - often humorous and always engaging - on aspects of teaching.
Ben Macklin has been working in the Internet industry for over ten years. He is overseeing the web strategy for the My Favourite Teacher project.
My Favourite Teacher is a book and website in progress. It is designed to highlight the pivotal role of our teachers in Australian society, to help raise their status and to encourage the best and brightest to enter the profession. Australians from across the nation are telling life-changing stories of their favourite teachers - humorous, poignant or just plain thankful.
The My Favourite Teacher Team
My Favourite Teacher
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Everyone has a favourite teacher. Whether they look back on their school experience with pleasure or pain, there will be one particular teacher who stands out as a beacon in a stormy sea. And the stories surrounding that relationship - at such a critical time - can be poignant, humorous, dramatic and insightful.
This website gives you the opportunity to tell the story of your favourite teacher.