For 13 years Bert Cummings ran the Lion's Den Hotel at Helensvale; in North Queensand's Cooktown tinfields. It has been in continuous operation for over 100 years and is a favorite for the locals and many southern visitors. For a clientele ranging from tinscratchers to property owners, from sightseers to station hands and hippies, he served as a barman, entertainer, fight referee, psychologist, philosopher, and Melbourne Cup sweepstake organiser.  He began writing this book in an attempt to retain his sanity whilst "observing the antics of the general public in a bush pub". His insight into human nature, as revealed in all its glory in the Lion's Den, leaves him "convinced that the planet Earth would have to be the dumping ground for all the misfits, morons, deadbeats, oddballs, dropouts and imbalanced creatures from other more stable planets - otherwise, we could never have got such a collection of them together in one heap".