I know nothing of David Martin’s childhood or family, but I think that he must come from a long line of slayers of dragons, and that somewhere during the formative years of his childhood he listened to many adult conversations on social justice and human dignity. At any rate, his adult life has been spent dealing with dragons, in one way or another.

David Martin arrived in Australia in the wake of World War II, having already been involved in quests ranging from the Spanish Civil War to a kibbutz in Judea. He experimented with the pen as a weapon as an anti-Nazi journalist in London during the War. His career in Australia, as journalist, poet, and novelist, has been, as he would himself perhaps say, not without honour.