He left home at 15 and for five years lived the life of an adventurer, claiming to have had twenty-five different jobs by the age of 17, and enlisting with the US Army in Kansas 26 October 1911, deserting and going to sea.

He married again in 1923 to artist and sculptor Thelma Cecily Smith (1900–1992), established himself as a tax consultant and by 1930 had settled in Vaucluse.

Some of his subsequent books were written in collaboration with P R 'Inky' Stephensen, notably The Viking of Van Diemen's Land and The Pirates of the Brig 'Cyprus'.

He was fascinated by the 'outsiders' of Australian history such as Captain Melville, Captain Starlight, Martin Cash, Edward Hargraves, Bully Hayes, Jørgen Jørgensen, "Chinese" Morrison, Ben Hall, Ned Kelly, Frederick Bailey Deeming and Louis de Rougemont.

He was criticised for embellishing the facts in the interests of the narrative, and was met with hostility by General Sir Thomas Blamey for his "irregular methods and indiscreet utterances" during WWII.