Ackland perceives similarities between the lives of theses two poets who were contemporaries at secondary school and collaborators in the Ern Malley hoax. He aims to describe Stewart's "fascination with Asia and his long sojourn in Japan" and "to trace the wider interaction between these two men and, in particular, to explore the deep conflicts and early traumas which drove their life's work." (Preface, p.vii)
