'In his introduction to The Pearl King, Robert Lehane quotes a journalist who, in 1932, expresses hope that the Brisbane businessman James Clark might some day be induced to ‘give the story of his life to the world . . . a moving epic of flood and field, of early sailoring days full of thrills’. James Clark never did write his life’s story. He died the following year. But with Lehane’s new book we are fortunate, finally, to have Clark’s biography.' (Introduction)