In May 1931, Sargeson took permanent residence in his parents' holiday cottage (or bach) in Takapuna, a northern suburb of Auckland. He was to remain at the bach as a full-time writer for most of the rest of his life. The bach was described by Sargeson as "nothing more than a small one-roomed hut in a quiet street ending in a no-man's land of mangrove mud-flats that belonged to the inner harbour. It was very decayed, with weather-boards falling off." Historian Michael King, who wrote a biography of Sargeson's life, has said that "even Don Doran", a friend of Sargeson who disparaged bourgeois standards and conventions, declined to spend a night there when he visited Sargeson from Wellington soon after the latter had moved in; he told his daughter the conditions were "too rough".