'As the gruesome reality of World War One dawned on Australians in 1917, a woman from Queensland published a book of love poetry which became one of the nation’s bestsellers. It was considered distasteful in society for a woman to display passion or allude to sex. Yet Zora Cross, born in Brisbane in 1890 and a granddaughter of Queensland pioneer and landowner, Zachariah Skyring, was to create something of a sensation with the publication of Songs of Love and Life. With a cover illustration by Norman Lindsay, the publication was bordering on scandalous.'
(Introduction)