Daily News 1932 |
Upfield first wrote it during 1932, the year after he left the bush to live in Perth, Western Australia, and work full-time as a freelance writer. It was published as a serial in a local newspaper, the Daily News, later that year. It was to be published by the (Melbourne) Herald early the next year; but the Herald then decided not to do so.
Nevertheless, in mid-1933 the Herald invited Upfield to join their staff; he accepted and moved to Melbourne to take up the job. He was retrenched when his six-month contract expired, but he had rewritten Breakaway House while with the Herald in the hope they would publish it; they did not. Although set in the same location, the story and its characters were significantly altered.
A&R 1987 |
Lulu.com 2009 |
Lulu 2012 |
I don’t know why the Herald would not publish the 1932 or 1934 versions. It’s a romantic thriller set in the Australian outback with a plot as good as The House of Cain and A Royal Abduction, and exhibits Upfield’s strengths of painting pictures with words and spelling words as spoken.
The new edition is available from the Arthur Upfield Bookshop.