Timms had written a numner of historical novels but this was his first with an Australian setting.

[1][2] The initial print run was 20,000 copies, which was considered "colossal" in Australian publishing at the time.

The Sunday Times said "It is grand writing, the author's facile pen building array of persons full of human emotions, some of them coarse, others refined, but all so artistically portrayed that they take on the cloak of reality in the reader's mind.

"[4] The Brisbane Telegraph called it "a lusty piee of Australian historical novel writing.

"[5] nouel writing The novel was adapted for radio in 1949 as a serial where it was read out by an actor.