Ben Hills

Ben Hills is one of Australia’s best-known journalists. A three-time foreign correspondent, he has reported from more than 60 countries on five continents in a career stretching back to the 1960s. Working mainly for the Fairfax group (with a spell at the 60 Minutes TV current affairs programme) he specialised in investigative journalism, targeting corruption in government and big business. Now freelancing, Ben has written five books, including a controversial biography of Japan’s Crown Princess Masako which was an international best-seller. His most recent book is about the life and times of Graham Perkin, a crusading newspaper editor.

Walkey Award winner

Ben won this Walkley Award -- Australia’s equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize -- in 1991 for investigative journalism. Among other awards, he was “highly commended” in the Graham Perkin Award for Australian journalist of the year. More recently his book Breaking News -- the Golden Age of Graham Perkin won an Alex Buzo Prize for excellence in research, was long-listed for the Walkley Awards and short-listed for the 2010 awards by the Prime Minister and the Premiers of NSW and WA.