Political Lives: Australian Prime Ministers and their Biographers

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.

About the author:

Dr Chris Wallace is Associate Professor at the 50/50 By 2030 Foundation, Faculty of Business Government and Law, University of Canberra. She was a longstanding member of the Canberra Press Gallery where she worked for the Australian Financial Review, The Australian, Channel 7 and ABC-TV. Wallace is the author of several books including the biography Germaine Greer: Untamed Shrew, The Private Don: The Man Behind the Legend of Don Bradman and Hewson: A Portrait.

Product details:

Author: Chris Wallace

Publisher: NewSouth Publishing

Pages: 336

Dimensions: 232 x 158 x 29 mm

Format: Paperback

Publication date: 1 February 2023

ISBN: 9781742237497