Cirrus@Austlit

'Persons of Interest does not fit readily into any familiar genre. It crosses the borders of biography, psychology, Cold War history, and family studies. When Pamela Burton and her sister Meredith Edwards decided to write a book about their parents, they realised that different readerships would be attracted to different parts. Who would be interested in a book about the marriage, and the post-divorce lives, of a man who had been a central figure in public controversies many decades ago and a sensitive, introspective woman who was little known to the public but for whom their daughters felt far greater sympathy? By crossing those borders with what their prologue calls ‘a unique, intimate and candid account of our parents’ complexities and interweaving relationships’, they have written a book that will be ‘of interest’ to many readers, no matter what their usual focus.'(Introduction)

'Robert Marsden Hope (1919–99), a NSW Supreme Court judge, shaped the structures, operations and doctrines of Australia’s intelligence agencies more than any other individual. 

'Commissioned by three Prime Ministers to conduct major inquiries, including two royal commissions, Justice Hope prescribed the structures, legislation, operational doctrines, and national and international arrangements that would ensure Australia had agencies that were effective in countering threats to its security, while also being fully accountable to the government, the law and the parliament. 

'Not just a biography on Hope, Law, Politics and Intelligence also makes an important contribution to the history of Australia’s environmental policies, adds significantly to the debate on judges acting as Royal Commissioners, and contains new insights into the appointment of High Court and Supreme Court judges, as well as the dismissal of the Whitlam Government. 

'This landmark biography is a groundbreaking account of the life and times of a man who shaped the way our intelligence agencies have operated for four decades.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The biography of the man who, for over twenty-five years, was arguably Australia's most significant public servant, serving every prime minister, Liberal and Labor, from Ben Chifley to Malcolm Fraser. Tange defined Australian foreign affairs and defence policy for over 25 years and this sheds new light on many of Australia's political crises including the downfall of John Gorton as PM, the fault line in Australian-US relationships during the Whitlam government and the deaths of the Balibo Five in East Timor. It also illuminates many of the triumphs and disasters of Australia's international relations, from the Bretton Woods conference and the Colombo Plan of the 1940s, through the ANZUS Treaty negotiations, the Petrov Affair and the Suez crisis in the 1950s, Australia's involvement in Indonesian confrontation and the Vietnam War in the 1960s, and the change from forward defence to the defence of Australia in the 1970s. By examining Tange's personal papers and Defence documents not released to the public at the time of writing, Peter Edwards reveals much that was hidden from view during political and diplomatic crises, including a nearly fatal rift in the alliance with the United States.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Shortly after Frank Crowley, then lecturing in history at the University of Western Australia, started his biography of John Forrest, he confronted his second-year students with a question: ‘It is said that every historian should tackle a biography at some stage in his life. What do you think?’ As I recall, the second-year students sat there with their mouths opening and closing silently like dyspeptic goldfish. One of them, however, for some reason remembered that remark. Thirty years later I recalled it when I was trying to work out what my next project should be, having just worked on the official history of Australia’s involvement in Malaya, Borneo and Vietnam, as well as various other projects. I wanted to do something which built on that work but which was also different. I thought that tackling a biography would be of interest. It occurred to me that somebody really ought to do a biography of the public servant Arthur Tange, a person to whom many historians, myself included, had referred with a one-word summary, either ‘legendary’ or ‘formidable’.'  (Introduction)