Cirrus@Austlit

'[T]he author again gives prominence to the Australian sentiment which runs through all his work, and at the end he brings the spirit of Australia into modern times by making his hero a member of the Air Force. The story concerns the hero's search for his father, whom he has lost through an accident in which they became separated. Throughout the narrative readers are told of the experiences of a man who has been fortunate enough to obtain efficient Instruction in riding and other station activities, and tuition which has developed in him a love of reading the best literature.'

Source:

'A Horseman in the Sky', Queensland Times, 11 February 1941, p.4.

A new stockman draws entirely false conclusions about his boss's daughter when he meets her for the first time on a stock muster.

'Stacey Dawson, only son of a wealthy cattle king, decides to give up all the advantages of wealth and social position to carve out a career for himself in the real Australia. "I believe," he says, "that love laughs at locksmiths, and all that beautiful stuff you read about in books. I believe in knights and the rescuing of lovely ladies from duress vile: in the slaying of dragons, and the crusade for the honour of a ladye fair, with her veil in your helmet and her colours on your lance. I'm romantic, and I don't care who knows it. I refuse to allow two middle-aged people to muck up my life." His adventures In the outback provide many a thrill.'

Source:

'New Story of the Bush', Queensland Times, 29 November 1939, p.6.

'This is a romance continuing the adventures of the gentleman bushranger, "Lone- Hand Laracy," whose exploits formed one of the main themes in a previous serial in the "Daily Examiner." Laracy, having found a gold mine and fallen in love with a struggling doctor's daughter, is beset with the desire to reform and lead a respectable life, but he is handicapped by the fact that the troopers are looking for him with a reward on his head, dead or alive.'

Source:

'New Serial', Daily Examiner, 27 January 1939, p.4.

A young Aboriginal man, riding home to spend Christmas with his wife and child, falls foul of a local landowner, who suspects him of cattle rustling.

An actress and the young son of a grizzled old selector fall in love, but his father and mother will not hear of their son marrying an actress.

A young station girl, denied a promised trip to Sydney when a drought brings unexpected expenses, finds a way to raise funds and prevent a drover from 'pirating' her father's stock of grass.

A young woman waits patiently for the return of her betrothed, despite her mother's pressure to marry a rich neighbour. But her resistance is worn down as the years pass with no word.

A wealthy widow will only marry her suitor if he finds a steady young man to marry her daughter Sadie. But the plan backfires.

A tale of revenge for the mistreatment of the local Indigenous population at the hands of the men who have taken over the local cattle station.

Entranced into eloping with a travelling salesman on promise of marriage, a young girl finds herself stranded miles from home with no hope of getting back before her father returns and discovers her flight.

A man who forbids his wife to write for a living, as she wishes to, receives a nasty shock on an evening when he thinks she is visiting her sister.

'In "Dinner-suit Dan," a young man from the bush joins the police in order to enable him to continue his studies in his leisure at the University, and having been attached to the detective branch of the force, he Is immediately involved In a sensational jewellery robbery and murder, as a detective. His sweetheart becomes involved, also, and together they have an experience that is packed with thrills.

'This Is a detective story with a difference, as the real sleuths of a real force are the heroes, and the way they go about their work is as exciting as any story of the super men from outside who are the central figures in many Scotland Yard tales.'

Source:

'"Dinner-suit Dan" : Australian Detective Thriller', Dalby Herald, 3 June 1938, p.3.