The first issue of Rananim, vol 1, no 1, October 1993

IN LATE 1993 we began publishing a journal, Rananim, to promote the interests of our DH Lawrence Society, and to provide a forum for articles on Lawrence's time in Australia, his "Australian works", and local Lawrence studies generally.

As well as becoming the main vehicle for disseminating the results of my ongoing research, Rananim also published the fruits of other people's research and contributions, notably that of my loyal collaborators John Ruffels and Andrew Moore (and, latterly, Robert Whitelaw), and my chief fellow-heretic, my wife Sandra.

In 2008, Rananim, after 21 issues spread over a period of 15 years, converted from "hard-copy" format to an online journal. It is still "published" at irregular intervals on our DHLA website - www.dhlawrencesocietyaustralia.com.au .

One of my early Rananim articles was headed "The Barber of Thirroul" [Rananim, vol 2, no 1, 1994] and it picked up the point to which several others had drawn attention (including Drs Steele, Ellis and Davis), which was the possibility that Lawrence could have learned about local political matters from "casual conversations" with people he had encountered in Sydney and Thirroul.

Of course, identifying people whom Lawrence might have talked to, casually or otherwise, in Sydney and Thirroul was at the very heart of my research.

Some of the "factual" local material in the novel - in particular its political content - had to have come from somewhere or someone other than from Lawrence, as he himself knew almost nothing about the place that was to be, not only the setting to his novel, but which was to provide its (highly unusual and unexpected) secret-army plot.

One source for such information could have been printed, as Dr Davis (and others) had pointed out. Lawrence might have read about the local scene in Sydney newspapers, or The Bulletin, or in books he might have read during his stay.

And, indeed, Lawrence mentions a number of such "sources" in the text.

We already know that he read The Bulletin, which, as well as being a literary publication, also had a good deal of political content.