Overview
‘His name’s Judd Hogan. Please call him that so I can find him again?’ said Judd’s mother tearfully as she placed him gently on a big old hard chair in the vestibule of the Mc Donald Boys’ Home outside Brisbane and then fled in a waiting car. And Judd has his first piece of luck. The screw on duty is the only kind screw in the harsh environment of the home and she undertakes to bring him up, at least until she leaves to get married. Judd is six when she leaves and has grown into a very strong little boy, able to care for himself among the 40 aggressive and rebellious boys of the Home. Life changes when he attends State school, later than usual, and is befriended by Mata Molnar, daughter of a city barrister. When they hear and see how cruelly the boys are treated at the Home her parents take Judd in as a foster brother for Mata, but the two young people have other ideas as they grew older and fall in love. Their parents are disturbed and they spirit Mata away to Hungary to relatives. She desperately wants to get back to Judd and steals money from her relatives, obtains a false passport and hides in Europe. Judd waits, has excellent University results and then gets a job at the Government betting agency and begins his Recover Mata Fund by embezzling from the agency. A friend has also been thieving but not as skilfully. When the Police arrive, about another matter as it turned out, Judd retrieves the money from his flat and returns it. He’s sentenced to four years’ prison and once again finds himself having to use his strength to defend himself in jail, where he becomes King of the Yard. He finishes his sentence and goes to the country seeking employment and meets Madonna Bellamy, a young cattle heiress, who’d admired him from a distance at University. They fall in love and marry quickly but after a few years disaster shatters their lives….