About the Author

Greg Bearup has been a feature writer at Good Weekend for the past six years. During his time on the magazine he has twice been awarded a Walkley Award for his writing. Prior to working on the magazine he worked for The Sydney Morning Herald for seven years, primarily as a crime reporter. Greg was born in northern NSW and began his career as a cadet on country newspapers, firstly at the Armidale Express, the Inverell Times and then the Newcastle Herald, before moving to Sydney. In 2004/5 he took two years' leave from his job at the magazine and worked and lived in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syria. He filed for The Guardian, The Times and the Christian Science Monitor. He also worked for the United Nations on the elections for Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iraqi's living in Syria. He spent six months in Bamyan, in the remote mountains of Central Afghanistan, working on the Afghan Parliamentary Elections in 2005.