In his private interests no less than in his public life, Russell Grimwade was a man of extraordinary diversity. Active in some of the largest and most enterprising business concerns in Australia, prominent in such bodies as the National Museum and the University of Melbourne, he yet found time to pursue hobbies such as wood working and produced with his own hands cabinet work of exquisite perfection. He designed golf clubs, did research into the Australian eucalypts and pioneered motoring in a country whose roads hitherto had known only horses and bullocks.

He was the son of F. S. Grimwade, an Englishman who settled in Victoria in 1863. In partnership with Alfred Felton, F. S. Grimwade established firms which developed eventually into components of some of the largest industrial undertakings in Australia such as Drug Houses of Australia and Australian Consolidated Industries. In the growth of such concerns, Russell's part was an important and constructive one.

Thus Sir Russell Grimwade's biographer was obliged to traverse many fields—from industrial gas production to forestry, from CSIRO to the collection of rare books and prints. In doing so he illuminates not merely the life of Russell Grimwade as an individual, but also his class, his generation and his country.

This book was the first title published in the Miegunyah Press series, the establishment of which was made possible by a bequest under the will of Sir Russell Grimwade. 'Miegunyah' was the home of Mab and Russell Grimwade from the year 1911.