These fourteen autobiographical tales were first published in 1934 and take us into Upfield's world from 1911 to the publication of The Sands of Windee and the trial of "Snowy" Rowles. They feature some of the characters and circumstances in the later Bony books. In 1934 Upfield made a genuine attempt to living as writer, working for a six month stint on the Melbourne Herald, writing the serial The Great Melbourne Cup Mystery. The year saw him also write The Gifts of Frank Cobbold His time at the Melbourne Herald had given him hope and impetus, and his articles for Walkabout and the Bulletin finally got him through a most difficult year; a year crowned with the publication of his own account of the "Snowy" Rowles case, The Murchison Murders - proving he could survive on his writing alone
