Cirrus@Austlit

' One of the beauties of historical fiction lies in its ability to peel back layers of accepted “facts” in order to dramatise events as they might have been. Robert Drewe is a master of this technique, and something of a magician who delights in delivering the jolt of the reveal. Fascinated by an 1866 faded sepia portrait of a small 10-year-old Australian boy, Johnny Day, displayed in the National Library of Australia, the author began researching the boy’s history. The photograph is reproduced in his novel, Nimblefoot.' (Introduction)