Bob Hawke: Demons and destiny, the definitive biography By Troy Bramston Viking 2022 ISBN: 9780143788096 RRP $49.99 (HB) Reviewed by Keith Harvey The introduction to Troy Bramston’s Bob Hawke: Demons and Destiny contains a content warning. The author advises that this unsanitised look at both the public but also the personal aspects of Hawke’s life [...]
FRASER IN OFFICE by Denis White Connor Court Publishing Pty Ltd, 2022 ISBN:9781922449580 RRP: $24.95 (pb) Reviewed by Paul Henderson Malcolm Fraser is a well-known politician. He was Prime Minister of Australia for over seven years, during which he won three elections (1975, 1977 and 1980). This is something achieved by very few others. [...]
ACTS OF CRUELTY – AUSTRALIA’S IMMIGRATION LAWS AND EXPERIENCES OF PEOPLE SEEKING PROTECTION AFTER ARRIVAL BY PLANE By Aileen Crowe Palaver 2022 ISBN-13: 9780645588101 RRP: $29.99 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson For some years, during the Howard Government, I unwittingly found myself as a personal advocate for a number of asylum seekers detained in [...]
THE PARTY – THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF AUSTRALIA FROM HEYDAY TO RECKONING by Stuart MacIntyre Allen & Unwin 2022, ISBN: 9781760875183 RRP $49.99 Reviewed by Keith Harvey The Party is Stuart MacIntyre’s second volume of his history of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA). It will also be his last as, sadly, he died of [...]
MENZIES: THE FORGOTTEN SPEECHES By David Furse-Roberts Jeparit Press, 2017 ISBN-10: 1925501507 ISBN-13: 978-1925501506 RRP: $68.44 (HB) Reviewed by Paul Henderson This book is about many of the forgotten speeches and broadcasts produced by Australia’s longest serving prime minister, Robert Menzies. Before they were recently published, they have been preserved in the basement of [...]
LAVARACK: RIVAL GENERAL By Brett Lodge Robinson Reynolds London 2021 ISBN: 978 1 914973 50 5 RRP: $32.95 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson He held a distinguished military record in World War I and rose in the ranks, taking time after the war to remain in Britain with the Australian Imperial Force. When John [...]
GOD AND MENZIES - THE FAITH THAT SHAPED A PRIME MINISTER AND HIS NATION by David Furse-Roberts Jeparit Press, 2021 ISBN: 9781922449641 RRP: $34.95 (pb) Reviewed by Paul Henderson Probably, there have been more biographies written about Sir Robert Menzies than any other Australian politician. This is not surprising in that he is the [...]
TOM STOPPARD – A LIFE By Hermione Lee Faber & Faber 2020 ISBN: 978 0 571 31443 0 RRP: $59.99 (HB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson It’s a big book, a bit short of 1000 pages with notes and index taken into account. At times, it seems to offer up compendium qualities as the biographer’s [...]
TRAITOR KING - THE SCANDALOUS EXILE OF THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF WINDSOR By Andrew Lownie Bonnier Books UK 2021 ISBN: 978 1 78870 487 8 RRP: $32.99 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson In his Traitor King – The Scandalous Exile of The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, author Andrew Lownie quotes British writer [...]
MISS DIOR A STORY OF COURAGE AND COUTURE By Justine Picardie Faber & Faber 2021 ISBN: 978 0 571 35652 2 RRP: $40 (HB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson Justine Picardie opens her Miss Dior A Story of Courage and Couture with the words: “This is the story of a ghost who walked into my [...]
