Migrating with his family in 1880, Frank Penn-Smith arrived in Tasmania at the age of sixteen and undertook work as a farmer and prospector. After moving to Queensland in 1900, he later lived in Melbourne before departing for South Africa in 1905. Throughout his life, Penn-Smith continued to travel extensively and he subsequently spent time in Johannesburg, Swaziland, Southern Rhodesia, Nigeria and also returned to the United Kingdom on more than one occasion.
While still living in Tasmania, Penn-Smith began writing poetry and by the early 1890s he had published a selection of verse, Austral Lyrics and Fugitive Pieces. Writing under the pseudonym 'Point Blank', he also contributed to the Bulletin and Steele Rudd's Magazine during the 1900s.
Describing the place of his early adulthood, Penn-Smith referred to Tasmania as 'the island of memory'. However, he never did resettle in Australia and only briefly revisited during 1922 for the purpose of selling the family property. Returning to the United Kingdom, he spent the last decade of his life living in a 16th century cottage located in the mountains of Wales. It was during this time that he began writing again, encouraged by the young English poet and author Richard Hughes. Penn-Smith produced the two works for which he has been noted: a selected work of short stories and animal fables entitled Hang! (1925), and the autobiographical The Unexpected (1933). Two years after his memoir was released to popular acclaim, Penn-Smith passed away at the age of seventy-two.
(Source: Margaret Giordano and Don Norman Tasmanian Literary Landmarks, 1984)
