Gough Whitlam: his time. Jenny Hocking. 2012.

This book is brand new from the publisher
Gough Whitlam, Australia’s twenty-first prime minister, swept to power in December 1972, ending twenty-three years of conservative rule. In barely three years Whitlam’s dramatic reform agenda would transform Australia. It was an ascendancy bitterly resented by some, never accepted by others, and ended with dismissal by the Governor General just three years later - an outcome that polarised debate and left many believing the full story had not been told.

In this much anticipated second volume of her biography of Gough Whitlam, Jenny Hocking has used previously unearthed archival material and extensive interviews with Gough Whitlam, his family, colleagues and foes, to bring the key players in these dramatic events to life.

Who was ‘the third man’ who counselled the Governor General, Sir John Kerr, in his decision to sack the twice-elected Whitlam government and appoint Malcolm Fraser as prime minister? How much did the Palace know about what was happening? And what drove Kerr to take the unprecedented action of removing an elected government from office?

This definitive biography takes us behind the political intrigue to reveal a devastated Whitlam and his personal struggle in the aftermath of the dismissal, the unfulfilled years that followed and his eventual political renewal as Australia’s ambassador to unesco. It also tells, through the highs and lows of his decades of public life, how Whitlam depended absolutely on the steadfast support of the love of his life, his wife Margaret. For this is also the story of a remarkable marriage and an enduring partnership.