A dual history of Australia's prime ministers, and the men and women who wrote about them. Political journalist and biographer Chris Wallace started writing a biography of Julia Gillard when she was deputy prime minister in the Rudd Labor government. By the time the book was ready to roll, Gillard was PM and the victim of vicious media and opposition treatment. Wallace's bio was balanced, showing the light and dark of Gillard's character. Considering the toxic atmosphere, Wallace feared her book could be used against Gillard. She pulled it from publication and returned her advance. This experience led Wallace to consider the effect of biography on Australia's prime ministers. Political Lives provides accounts of the biographical treatment of Australia's 20th century prime ministers, from Edmund Barton to John Howard. Australia's first six prime ministers had no biographies written about them while they held office. Things took a radical turn in the 1970s with the election of Labor's Gough Whitlam, who was the subject of several contemporaneous biographies and arguably hit its peak with Blanche d'Alpuget's Robert J. Hawke. (Wallace's chapter on the writing of the Hawke biography is a tour de force and shouldn't be missed.) A brisk short history of Australia's prime ministers, and the men and women who wrote about them. Political Lives: Australian Prime Ministers and Their Biographers, by Chris Wallace. Published by UNSW. $39.99 Review by Chris Saliba Comments are closed.
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