'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)