Country and City in the Short Stories of Margaret Fane and Hilary Lofting

In what follows, I first sketch Osborn's life up to and including her attachment to Lofting and the locations that formed the settings of their earliest joint fictions. Because their stories have lacked consideration for some three-quarters of a century (in part because of the status of popular short fiction, the romance tendency of their work and perhaps more obviously, the work remains uncollected), I have found it helpful to outline some salient aspects of their writing before resuming the biographical narrative to indicate Lofting's European and other experience and the extent of his infatuation with Australia in his independently written stories as well as those written in conjunction with Osborn. According to their daughter Nina Beaton, the couple's agent handled over seven hundred of their productions (Beaton, 1988). [...]no doubt, in lands where all men do not work, he stands forward a little in dignified value, and its unconsciousness is its best quality. [...]if you are not afraid of being shocked, read the book and see for yourself".