Biographical note

George Burchett was born in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 1955 of an Australian father (journalist Wilfred Burchett) and Bulgarian mother. He grew up in Moscow, Russia; Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Paris, France. He studied at Lycée Janson de Sailly in Paris and at the Fine Arts Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria where he completed his Masters in Mural Art. In 1985 he moved to Australia with his artist wife Ilza and their son Graham. Their first six months in Australia were spent in Maningrida, Arnhem Land were George worked as Arts & Crafts Advisor to the local Aboriginal community. Since settling in Sydney, George Burchett has completed numerous arts commissions in Australia and South East Asia and has exhibited his works in various galleries. He also works as a subtitler at SBS Television, Australia's multicultural broadcaster. Dr Nick Shimmin was born in Liverpool, England and moved with his family to Sydney in 1969. Educated at school and university in Sydney, he returned to England in 1985 to study for a doctorate at the University of Lancaster. He completed a thesis on the Manx writers T. E. Brown and Hall Caine in 1989, then returned to Sydney. Since that time he has worked in sales and marketing for Cambridge University Press in Sydney, and also as a subtitling editor for the television arm of the Special Broadcasting Service, where he met George Burchett.