Margaret & Gough

The Whitlams' wasn't just a love story - it was a dynamic and enduring partnership that shaped our nation.

This is the compelling story of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, his wife Margaret and their 70-year relationship – personal and political, private and public. It is a story of how two extraordinary people, side by side, led the Australian nation into an exciting and turbulent new era.

Gough had no small talk, Margaret had the gift of easy conversation. He was often ill-at-ease in company and preferred his books. She was warm, inclusive and jollied him along. He had a vicious tongue and a quick temper. She always tried to see the best in people. He knew everything about the ideology, history and heroes of the Labor movement. She trusted her instincts. They saw each other as equals and never hesitated to express their different viewpoints. He may have passed the laws that changed the nation, but she made it possible.

This is a story of love, respect, struggle, success, failure, disappointment and resilience. It was the strength and endurance of this remarkable relationship that helped change our nation politically, culturally and socially. Neither Gough nor Margaret would have developed into what each became without the influence of the other. Through every major political change, every election campaign, every triumph and every loss, they stood together.

Margaret and Gough takes us inside a partnership where the political was always personal and the personal was always political.

'Mitchell succeeds in weaving together their lives against a backdrop of Gough's political career ... a fine dual biography' - The Australian

'This sweeping, slightly idealised overview of their love, with a bit of political history thrown into the mix, is a lesson in commitment' - Daily Telegraph

'Read about Gough the man who read romantic poems from Keats and Shelley to his new wife Margaret on their honeymoon in 1942' - Sunday Territorian