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Rachel Franks Rachel Franks i(A145454 works by)
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

Coordinator, Scholarship, at the State Library of New South Wales (since 2014), and a Conjoint Fellow at The University of Newcastle, Australia (since 2014).

Franks holds a PhD in Australian crime fiction from the University of Central Queensland and a PhD in true crime narratives from The University of Sydney. She also has undergraduate degrees from the University of Technology, Sydney and Charles Sturt University and masters degrees from Central Queensland University and the University of Canberra.

She has published widely on crime fiction, true crime, information science, and popular culture.

Most Referenced Works

Personal Awards

2016 winner Australasian Association of Writing Programs Awards — Postgraduate Prize : Theoretical Stream for 'Stealing Stories: Punishment, Profit and the Ordinary of Newgate'.
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Awards for Works

y separately published work icon An Uncommon Hangman : The Life and Deaths of Robert ‘Nosey Bob’ Howard Sydney : NewSouth Publishing , 2022 23862829 2022 single work biography

'This is the story of Robert Rice Howard (1832–1906), the man known as Nosey Bob. It is also an important chapter in the story of the changing attitudes towards capital punishment in Australia, as the country transformed from generally enthusiastic spectators at executions into campaigners for the abolition of the death penalty. These interconnected stories are told through the men, and the one woman, who met Nosey Bob under the worst possible circumstances between his first employment by the Department of Justice in 1876 and his retirement as the executioner for New South Wales in 1904.

'Once a household name, Nosey Bob was the most infamous public servant in Sydney: a noseless hangman who sparked fear and fascination everywhere he went. Howard has only ever been cast as an extra in someone else’s play, making frightening appearances in a felon’s final scene on the gallows. Here, for the first time, he has taken the lead.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.
2023 winner The Danger Prize — People's Choice
2023 longlisted Davitt Award — Best Debut
2023 longlisted Davitt Award — Best True Crime Book
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Last amended 16 Oct 2020 12:27:29
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