y separately published work icon Public Life, Private Grief single work   autobiography  
Issue Details: First known date: 2010... 2010 Public Life, Private Grief
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'This book is a love story, a political memoir, a parallel journey into and through grief and loss. It goes inside Cabinet and inside the heart. It wonders why we don't make enough room in our lives for death. A Minister and a mother loses her mate, almost loses her mind. Mary Delahunty is a celebrity journalist elected to Parliament, sparkling in the breathless publicity of an ALP ‘Star recruit'. In under a year the party wins the election Jeff Kennett couldn't lose and she is thrust, with her startled new colleagues, into Government. Dubbed a team ‘on training wheels' the Bracks' government sets about restoring services to a Victoria brittle with anger. MD becomes Minister for Education and the Arts. The fairy dust fades though when her soul mate, husband and father of their two children is struck down with a rampant cancer. This is a meditation on how a public figure copes, or fails to cope with private grief, during the long dying and the unending absence. It explores our society's deep disdain for death and sickness and how the gladiatorial dark arts of politics don't pause for anyone. Mary Delahunty is honest and entertaining about her mistakes, her political unravelling, her ‘sacking' and the understanding of a new shape of life after ‘the bear pit'. This is a compelling read as a charmed life comes spectacularly undone in public.' (Publisher's description)

Notes

  • Dedication: For Nick and Olivia / So they will know their father / My father was a storyteller, my mother a writer / This book also honours them

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Prahran, South Yarra - Glen Iris area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Hardie Grant Books , 2010 .
      Extent: 264p.
      Note/s:
      • Includes index (pp. 257-264)
      ISBN: 9781740668583

Works about this Work

Renewal Corrie Perkin , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 325 2010; (p. 21)

— Review of Public Life, Private Grief Mary Delahunty , 2010 single work autobiography
Delahunty's Life in Context Bridget Cormack , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian , 7 September 2010; (p. 14)
Of Love and Loss Michael Ruffles , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 27 August 2010; (p. 4)
Everything about Mary, and More Helen Elliott , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 28 August 2010; (p. 23) The Sydney Morning Herald , 28-29 August 2010; (p. 35)

— Review of Public Life, Private Grief Mary Delahunty , 2010 single work autobiography
Fallen Star John Van Tiggelen , 2010 single work biography
— Appears in: Good Weekend , 21 August 2010; (p. 29, 31-32, 35)
Everything about Mary, and More Helen Elliott , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 28 August 2010; (p. 23) The Sydney Morning Herald , 28-29 August 2010; (p. 35)

— Review of Public Life, Private Grief Mary Delahunty , 2010 single work autobiography
Renewal Corrie Perkin , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 325 2010; (p. 21)

— Review of Public Life, Private Grief Mary Delahunty , 2010 single work autobiography
Caught in the Web Melissa Fyfe , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 22 August 2010; (p. 15)
Delahunty Memoir Reveals Developer Sway on Planning Melissa Fyfe , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 22 August 2010; (p. 3)
Fallen Star John Van Tiggelen , 2010 single work biography
— Appears in: Good Weekend , 21 August 2010; (p. 29, 31-32, 35)
Of Love and Loss Michael Ruffles , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 27 August 2010; (p. 4)
Delahunty's Life in Context Bridget Cormack , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian , 7 September 2010; (p. 14)
Last amended 27 May 2014 20:54:10
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