Discusses the importance of family in Boyd's life and work, arguing that for Boyd family is more important than place or nationality: 'it is family which gives significance to particular places, and one of the recurring themes of [Boyd's] writing is the loss of identity which follows the destruction of long family associations. His family novels, and his autobiography, chronicle the quest of his characters for an identity which they instinctively place in the imagined harmony of the past' (339).

Stewart examines the European influence on Maurice Guest and demonstrates how Richardson extended and developed the techniques of J. P Jacobsen and others. Stewart explores the Nietzschean view presented through the actions of Maurice and Schilsky, demonstrating how their humanity influences a convergence or divergence from the characteristics of Neitzsche's artist-genius.

Examines the concept of freedom in two of Keneally's novels, and the nature of institutions which are presented in a way that his heroes fear them and consequently prefer self-destruction to freedom.

Roe argues that Cambridge contemplated the role of women in colonial society and her ability to participate in intellectual discussion in her early poetry. But Cambridge concluded that this was beyond her ability and the revisions between Unspoken Thoughts and The Hand in the Dark and her adoption of fiction (where she champions the safety for women provided by the Romantic English male) as her favoured mode of expression reflect her withdrawal.