High Road to China by Jon Cleary (1917-2010). Originally published in 1977 and made into a movie starring Tom Selleck in 1983, no doubt trying to cash in on the popularity of the Indiana Jones series. I read this book during a period in the 80's when many of the books I read were novelisations of movies I hadn't seen. Most of them I got from Harry Hall's second hand bookshop in Smithfield, Belfast. It's now long gone unfortunately.

I've still never seen the film but from what I've heard it didn't live up to it's potential. It was the last movie directed by Brian G. Hutton. He directed nine movies (including Where Eagles Dare and Kelly's Heroes) and gradually lost interest in film making.

Jon Cleary - When You Get Back (Live at Jazz Fest 2007)

High Road to China (1983) - trailer

The Sundowners (1960). In Australia's Outback during the early 20th century the impoverished Carmody family lives a nomadic life out of their wagon but the mom and son want to settle while the dad is against it.

Jon Stephen Cleary was an Australian writer and novelist. He wrote numerous books, including The Sundowners (1951), a portrait of a rural family in the 1920s as...