The coastal town is not named, nor is 'the boy' about whom and by whom this story of 1950's and 1960's rural Australia is written. Much of the narrative revolves around fishing waters, fresh and salt in Victoria's Western District. More than that, it is a journey from birth to hormones-haywire, mid-teens of a lad blessed with good health and sporting ability, his interactions with Irish and Scottish born immigrant parents and observing the attitudes and characters in a conservative provincial community of that era. Contemplated above all perhaps, is the boy's ambivalence towards a British ex-serviceman father, so contrasting in persona and profession to the dinkum blue-collar Anzac dads of his schoolmates and finding his way to finally and fully appreciate this admirable man.
