Orphaned by losing his mother at three and his father - whowent missing at eight - Sydney author Francis Ravel Harveyavoided the Welfare State by being raised by four older sistersin the colourful environs of Sydney in the nineteen thirties.The search for his cultivated English father is a constant threadthroughout the book and reaches an amazing andheartbreaking conclusion when the author finally uncovers thetruth surrounding his father's death.Harvey's writing has been compared by one critic with that ofGabriel Garcia Marquez, for his ability to create a real sense ofsuspense and drama from his memories and for the descriptionof the colourful characters who inhabited his world.Journalist and author, Francis Ravel Harvey was born at Homebush, New SouthWales in 1930 and began his career as a cadet journalist on the Sun newspaper in1947. In 1950 he worked for almost ten years as producer of the independentmonthly music journal The Canon. He worked as a freelance journalist in the livetheatre in Sydney, wrote scripts for the ABCs Tales of Many Lands, and episodes ofHomicide for Crawford's in Melbourne. In 1959 he founded his own bi-monthlymagazine Theatregoer which ran for five years and published the first theatreyearbook for the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust (1959-60). He was theatrecritic for the Canberra Times in the 70s. and then worked as an editor and writer forHorwitz Publications and Ure Smith, founding the first magazine in Australia onindustrial design, Design Australia, for the Industrial Design Council of Australia,which was endorsed by the Duke of Edinburgh.