First published in 1923, this novel is set in Australia and presents an account of a visit to New South Wales by Richard Lovat Somers, an English writer, and his German wife Harriet, in the early 1920s. This appears to be semi-autobiographical, based on a three-month visit to Australia by Lawrence and his wife Frieda in 1922.
The novel features a chapter titled Nightmare describing the Somers’ experiences in wartime St Ives, Cornwall, with vivid descriptions of the Australian landscape and Richard Somers’ sceptical reflections on fringe politics in Sydney.
“Kangaroo” is the fictional nickname of the character Benjamin Cooley, a prominent ex-soldier and lawyer, who is also the leader of a secretive, fascist paramilitary organisation, the “Diggers Club”. Cooley fascinates Somers, though he maintains his distance from the movement itself. Another central character is Willie Struthers, a left wing activist reputed to have been based partly on Willem Siebenhaar, who made Lawrence’s acquaintance in Western Australia. The novel is sometimes cited as an influence on the Jindyworobak movement, an Australian nationalist literary group, which emerged about a decade later.