Author Description

"The Literary Larrikin is the life story of T.A.G. Hungerford, the last grand old man of Australian literature. The author of four major novels, a short-story writer par excellence and a poet, Hungerford has also been a soldier and traveller." "As well as recounting the events of his life, this book is interspersed with serious discussion of his contribution to Australian literature. Hungerford's best-known work, The Ridge and the River, is among the most significant novels of World War II and one of the most vivid accounts of fighting men ever written. It is closely related to his own experiences as a member of a commando unit based on Bougainville." "This biography also takes an in-depth look at Tom Hungerford the man, the archetypal bachelor of the post-war years. He represents the Australia of yesteryear, when the country still retained a certain innocence and his native Perth was just a big country town."--Jacket.