Bindloss was born in Liverpool in 1866 but spent much of his youth in the Canadian wilderness working as a lumberer, farmer, and cargo heaver before returning to England in 1898. He started writing beginning with an account of his life in Canada. Before long he was a well-respected and prodigious novelist writing stories set in the land where he had lived his youth. This story centers on Jim Dearham who, although educated at McGill university lives a lonely life in his log cabin in British Columbia.