Kangaroo is an account of a visit to New South Wales by an English writer named Richard Lovat Somers, and his German wife Harriet, in the early 1920s. This appears to be semi-autobiographical, based on a three-month visit to Australia by Lawrence and his wife Frieda, in 1922.
The novel includes a chapter ('Nightmare') describing the Somers' experiences in wartime Cornwall (St Columb Major), vivid descriptions of the Australian landscape, and Richard Somers' sceptical reflections on fringe politics in Sydney.
Australian journalist Robert Darroch - in several articles in the late 1970s, and a 1981 book entitled D.H. Lawrence in Australia - claimed that Lawrence based Kangaroo on real people and events he witnessed in Australia.
The extent to which this is true remains a matter of controversy - particularly by Joseph Davis in his 1989 'D.H. Lawrence at Thirroul'(Collins, Sydney). Davis is sympathetic to the view that 'Kangaroo' may be based on real events but argues that it is impossible that Lawrence had time to meet clandestine political leaders in Sydney when he was too busy writing his novel in Thirroul.
