'In the 1950s Australian author Ray Mathew was a young writer with outstanding gifts. Seeking to escape difficulties in his personal life, Mathew left Australia in 1960, never to return. He continued to write until his death in New York in 2003, and his work has rarely received the consideration it deserves. The National Library of Australia's collections contain papers relating to Ray Mathew's life and career and, in particular, unpublished manuscripts from which Tom Shapcott has selected and introduced for publication nine short stories and three chapters from the unpublished novel, 'The Making of Andrew'. These works, written over 30 years, demonstrate many of Mathew's strengths as a writer and illustrate that, though he published little after he left Australia, he continued to exercise his considerable and fluent gift for storytelling.' (Publisher's blurb)
