A prolific author of poetry, journalism and fiction, 'Grant Hervey' (born George Henry Cochrane) seems to have been quite a controversial figure who led a rather turbulent life. A blacksmith before becoming a journalist, writer and free-lance politician, he was tried several times for attempted murder, forgery and similar crimes, and he received various gaol sentences. He wrote his historical novel An Eden of Good (1934) while serving time in Bathurst prison.
Apart from a collection of his poetry, 'Hervey' published ballads and other verses in the Bulletin and in other Australian periodicals, and contributed a section of prose and poetry to Vincent Read's collection Motherhood where he was highly praised as an outstanding Australian and an Australian Rudyard Kipling. His open letter about prison conditions to the New South Wales Premier, W.A. Holman, was printed in Vance Marshall's The World of the Living Dead (Oxford Companion to Australian Literature).
