Australian novelist, Arthur W. Upfield (1890-1964), was packed off to Australia in 1911 by his father, a successful English draper. Soon abandoning his position as estate agent, the young Upfield made his way to the interior of the continent where, with minor excursions (such as Army service during WWI),
he spent the rest of his life.
Upfield experienced a great deal of life in the bush and the
phenomenal extremes of nature during his early years. He worked
as a camel drover, opal gouger, rabbit-fence mender, cook, and
horse wrangler--among many other outback occupations. Eventually
he brought that knowledge to his fine detective novels featuring
Queensland Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte. Bony, as he
was known to his friends, was half Aboriginal and half English,
qualities he carried into the bush and to the remote towns, huts,
and sheep stations where the mysteries are set.
Bony insisted upon investigating only mysteries that interested him,
cheerfully defying his superior officer, Superintendent Spendor,
who routinely ordered Bony to return to the office in Brisbane,
Queensland. This artistic device allowed Upfield to set the Bony
novels across the Australian continent. Bony carried his sterling record
of detection successfully through all (but one) of the 29 Bony novels.
