The Literary Larrikin is the colorful life story of T.A.G. Hungerford, the last grand old man of Australian literature. The author of four major novels, a short-story writer par excellence and a poet, Hungerford has also been a soldier and traveller. As well as recounting the events of his life, this book is interspersed with serious discussion of his contribution to Australian literature. Hungerford's best-known work, The Ridge and the River, is among the most significant novels of World War II and one of the most vivid accounts of fighting men ever written. The Literary Larrikin examines a literary figure who has secured his place in the Australian literary canon.