Political Lives

Political Lives is an intimate history of image-making and image-breaking in national politics. What was the story behind Bob Hawke' s famed biography? Why does Paul Keating think biographies of serving politicians are ' like Polaroids of a busy life' while John Howard considers them a big mistake? Where is the ' missing' Menzies biography? Why are our early prime ministers largely absent from historical memory? Chris Wallace writes Australian political history anew through this account of prime ministers, their biographies and their biographers. Lively and astute, the book takes us into their motivations and relationships, some well-known and some hidden, and in doing so shows us Australian politics in a fresh light. ' For years there has been no shrewder or sharper commentator on Canberra politics than Chris Wallace. In this compelling, typically acute and unique study she contrives to illuminate all at once — and often as if for the first time — both the character of Australia' s prime ministers and the way Australian political history has been made.' — Don Watson