Jesse Fink
Jesse Fink | |
---|---|
Born | 1973 (age 50–51) London, United Kingdom |
Occupation | Author |
Period | 2007–present |
Genre | Nonfiction |
Website | |
www |
Jesse Fink (born 1973) is a British-Australian author of five books including twin biographies of the hard-rock band AC/DC (The Youngs: The Brothers Who Built AC/DC and Bon: The Last Highway).[1] His books have been translated into several languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, German and French [1].
Biography
Born in London, United Kingdom, Fink was educated at schools in Sydney, Australia. He attended the University of Technology, majoring in journalism.
Early career
Fink began his writing career in sports journalism, working as an editor of sports and non-fiction titles for the Australian arm of book publisher HarperCollins and later as a deputy editor of Inside Sport. In 2003, he was nominated for a Walkley Award for a feature about the sports memorabilia industry. It was included in the Black Inc. anthology The Best Australian Sportswriting 2004,[2] as was "Safari Politics", a feature on trophy hunting. Another Inside Sport feature, "Silent Witness", about mental illness among high-performance athletes, won an Australian Sports Commission Media Award.
Sportswriter
Fink left Inside Sport magazine to work as a soccer writer for Fox Sports Australia in 2006.
In 2007, under the moniker ‘Half-Time Orange’, he began writing soccer columns for SBS Television's The World Game website as well as columns for ESPN Star Sports (later Fox Sports Asia) in Singapore, Tribal Football and The Roar. In 2011 Fink departed SBS after an editorial disagreement with late network anchor Les Murray over what he alleged was interference from Murray in his critical reporting of Australia's 2022 World Cup bid and general commentary on Football Federation Australia.[3] Fink appeared on ABC Television's 7.30 [2] to give his side of the story and in a number of online editorials, including Qatari network Al Jazeera,[4] accused then-FIFA Ethics Committee member Murray of conflict of interest in his SBS position.[5]
Books
In 2007 Fink published his first book, 15 Days in June [3], the story of the Socceroos at the 2006 FIFA World Cup. It was re-released by Xoum Publishing in a special e-book edition [6] before the 2014 FIFA World Cup under the new title World Party. Socceroos star Tim Cahill wrote the foreword.[7]
In 2012 Fink published his second book, Laid Bare: One Man’s Story of Sex, Love and Other Disorders (Hachette Australia), a memoir of divorce and dating.[8] It was republished [4] in 2017 by Xoum Publishing (which changed its name to Brio Books in 2018). His writing on relationships regularly appeared in News Limited's Sunday Style magazine.[9]
His third book, The Youngs: The Brothers Who Built AC/DC [5] (Random House Australia, St Martin's Press), a ‘critical appreciation’ of Angus Young, George Young and Malcolm Young, was named one of Public Radio International's The World Books of the Year in 2014.[10] The New Yorker called it "an essential read for fans of the band".[11]
Fink's fourth book, Bon: The Last Highway [6] (Penguin Books Australia, ECW Press), was a biography of deceased AC/DC singer Bon Scott. Bon was the cover story in the December 2017 issue of Classic Rock. In the book, Fink concludes that Scott died of a heroin overdose [7] and not the official cause: acute alcohol poisoning. He also addresses and provides new information regarding the widespread speculation that Scott actually contributed uncredited lyrics to the AC/DC album Back In Black. In 2018 an updated edition of the book was released in Australia and the United Kingdom.
In 2020 Penguin Books Australia announced it was releasing his fifth book, Pure Narco [8], the life story of Cuban-American cocaine trafficker Luis Antonio Navia and Navia's criminal career working for the Colombian and Mexican cartels.
Bibliography
- 15 Days in June (Hardie Grant Books, 2007; revised edition Xoum Publishing, 2014)
- Laid Bare (Hachette Australia, 2012; revised edition Xoum Publishing, 2017)
- The Youngs (St Martin's Press, Random House Australia, Black & White Publishing, Editorial Planeta Argentina, Disk Union, Hannibal Verlag, AST, People's Press, Giunti Editore, Volvox Globator, Camion Blanc, Editora Gutenberg, Versus Aureus, HarperCollins India, Dereta, Libros Cupula, 2013)
- Bon (ECW Press, Penguin Books Australia, Black & White Publishing, Hannibal Verlag, Editora Saraiva, Disk Union, Le Castor Astral, Vaktel Forlag, 2017; revised edition Penguin Books Australia and Black & White Publishing, 2018)
- Pure Narco (Penguin Books Australia and John Blake Publishing, 2020)
References
- ^ "Bon Scott, AC/DC's lost leader, is uncovered". The Irish Times. November 24, 2017.
- ^ Garrie Hutchinson (2004). The Best Australian Sports Writing 2004. Black Inc. p. 214. ISBN 978-1-86395-213-2.
- ^ Fink, Jesse (May 15, 2020). "Why I stopped writing about soccer". jessefinkbooks.com.
- ^ Fink, Jesse (July 26, 2011). "FIFA's judges should also be judged". www.aljazeera.com.
- ^ Tuckerman, Mike (July 7, 2011). "Jesse Fink blows the lid on SBS editorial pressure". www.theroar.com.au.
- ^ "This is Australia's greatest football moment". No. The Advertiser. May 22, 2014.
- ^ Jesse Fink (April 7, 2014). World Party: The Inside Story of the Socceroos' Greatest Campaign. Xou Pty. Limited. ISBN 978-1-922057-99-0.
- ^ Jesse Fink (September 11, 2012). Laid Bare: One man's story of sex, love and other disorders. Hachette Australia. ISBN 978-0-7336-2919-8.
- ^ Fink, Jesse (August 10, 2015). "Divorce doesn't make you a bad parent". news.com.au.
- ^ Davy, Steven (December 18, 2014). "Here are the books we read this year that we think you'll love". pri.org.
- ^ Michaud, Jon (December 2, 2014). "The brothers who built AC/DC". newyorker.com.