C. J. Dennis was a prolific poet and journalist who made his name with The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke (1915) and The Moods of Ginger Mick (1916), vernacular verse narratives that celebrated two larrikins (young street rowdies) from inner-city Melbourne. Bill, the sentimental bloke who gave up the ways of a street thug for domestic bliss, and Mick, his mate (close friend), who died as a hero in the Dardanelles, were enormously popular with Australian audiences during World War I, and the former continued to have a strong appeal for more than half a century.

Clarence Michael James Dennis was born to Irish parents in rural South Australia in the District Hotel in Auburn, of which his father was licensee. The family soon moved to a hotel in Watervale, a short distance along the Clare Valley, and then on to hotels in Gladstone and Laura, a little farther away...