Cirrus@Austlit

 (Introduction)

'As he describes them in his newly published memoir, Ron Boswell: Not Pretty, But Pretty Effective, Ron Boswell’s early years in Perth were not happy. His mother, “something of a drifter and subject to Bohemian influences,” was ill-matched with his father, “a devout and practising Roman Catholic with a conservative and constrained personality.” His childhood included two parental separations, frequent changes of school, and an abduction (by his mother, accompanied by her lover) to Melbourne.'  (Introduction)

'Australia’s longest-serving prime minister emerges sympathetically from the first two of a projected four-volume survey'

'A new biography reveals Tim Fischer to have been a more complex figure than he might have seemed'

'Brian Burke’s doorstopper of a memoir is a valuable but partial account of a career propelled by an old grievance'

'Any account of the life of Herbert Vere Evatt must address two key questions: could the Labor split of the mid 1950s have been avoided with a leader other than Evatt, and was Evatt “mad”? John Murphy tackles these issues and more in a very readable account of one of Australian politics’ most perplexing characters. Evatt has perhaps been the subject of more studies than many prime ministers, which would be small solace to a man who so greatly craved that high office but who, after failing to reach it by a slim margin in 1954, spent the next six years in very public political and psychological disintegration.' (Introduction)   

'Are the intriguing revelations from the notebooks of Paul Hasluck part of a larger trove, asks Paul Rodan'