Reading the Rooms

Rachel Franks holds PhDs in Australian crime fiction from Central Queensland University and true crime texts from the University of Sydney. A qualified educator and librarian, her work on crime fiction, true crime, popular culture and information science has been presented at numerous conferences as well as on radio and television. An award-winning writer, she is the author of An Uncommon Hangman: The life and deaths of Robert ' Nosey Bob' Howard. She tweets @cfwriter. Richard Neville is the Mitchell Librarian and Director Engagement at the State Library of NSW. He is a well-known authority on nineteenth colonial art and culture and has published widely in this area. His A rage for curiosity: Visualising Australia 1788- 1830 is now a standard text for art of this period. In 2012 he published Mr JW Lewin. Painter & Naturalist, about colonial artist and coroner John William Lewin. He has worked with the Mitchell Library's famed Australiana collections since 1990.