AustLit

'Who have been Australia’s most accomplished federal opposition leaders? The conventional answer to this question is Robert Menzies and Gough Whitlam, both renowned for rejuvenating their respective sides of politics and galvanising new constituencies of support.'

'Chris Wallace has written an engrossing and original study about the role of biography in image making in Australian national politics. In a story now well circulated, Wallace landed on the topic after spiking her biography of Julia Gillard because of an apprehension that the prime minister’s numerous enemies, both within and outside her government, would ‘cherrypick’ (xi) the book for ammunition to hurl at Gillard. From this, Wallace was spurred to ask questions about the practice of contemporary political biography—those published while leaders were ascending to power or while in office—and the function they serve as an instrument of ‘political intervention’.' (Introduction)   

'In April 2018, I was invited to submit an expression of interest for the position of visiting Cabinet historian to the National Archives of Australia (NAA). I was informed that the Archives had consulted the Australian Historical Association and my name had been ‘highly recommended’. I was quietly thrilled at the invitation. As a biographer and political historian, my own research interests in recent years had meshed into a focus on leadership and executive government. Naturally, I had always taken a keen interest in the annual New Year’s Day release of the Cabinet records, poring over the newspaper reports. Now I was being offered the opportunity to be an integral part of that process, to gain a privileged window into the engine room of national government. I duly submitted an expression of interest and by early May had been formally offered the position. I accepted the offer with enthusiasm.' (Introduction)

'Whether the product of the economics of Australia’s small book-buying market or a self-deprecating national temperament, there is something of an inhibition towards examining lives that have already received biographical treatment. H.V. Evatt defies that convention. John Murphy’s is the fourth full-scale biography of him. In the introduction, Murphy suggests that, despite those previous studies, Evatt has mostly remained “out of focus, evading capture or only being captured in fragments”.'  (Introduction)