This is an excellent, scholarly researched book about the diarist Joseph Jenkins, who abruptly left his large family in Wales, at the age of 50, to live in the Victorian goldfields between 1869 and 1894. The author attempts to explain the mystery of why he left home, and why he changed overnight from an over-imbibing farmer and political pundit to a temperate, plodding rural labourer. The book was originally published in Welsh under the title 'Rhwng dau fyd : y swagman o Geredigion' (qv). ( )