"An adventure novel, a complex melodrama centred on a convict who did the crime he has been sentenced for, but still seeks to make a new life for himself in Australia, and preferably one that suits his gentlemanly background. The book follows a carousel of escapes and captures, unrequited love, underground criminals, and occasionally philosophy."
Dedication:
To
M.
in Memory of our ascent of Mount Arthur,
Port Arthur,
and discovery in the undergrowth of
the iron arms of the Semaphore,
whose wooden flag-poles, when lifted from
the ground, fell back to earth in dusty fragments