Paul Keating

Troy Bramston draws on conversations with Paul Keating and on Keating's own private papers to trace his life in politics. The account begins in the outer suburbs of Sydney, follows his climb through Young Labor, and reaches the federal parliament when he was only 25. It then covers his brief service as a minister near the end of the Whitlam government, his groundbreaking years as treasurer during the 1980s, and his four years as prime minister from 1991 to 1996. The book also looks at what Keating has pursued since leaving office.

Bramston spoke with roughly 75 people who worked closely with Keating or knew him well. They include parliamentary colleagues, advisers, party officials, union leaders, public servants and journalists. Among those interviewed are Gough Whitlam, Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke, John Howard, Doug Anthony, Bill Hayden, Andrew Peacock, Ian Sinclair, John Hewson, Alexander Downer, Peter Costello, Kim Beazley, Simon Crean and Bob Carr. Bramston also gained access to the Labor Party's archives and reports caucus minutes never published before. He draws on Bob Carr's unpublished diaries, cabinet papers that were once secret, and records from the presidential archives of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Former British prime minister Tony Blair is also among his sources.

The book examines Keating's conviction that political leadership depends on courage and imagination, a view that shaped both his greatest achievements and his hardest setbacks. It sets out his program of reform and his picture of Australia's future, and it analyses how that vision is still debated. Bramston also considers what the Labor Party and the wider country might learn from Keating, a figure Australia has been slow to fully accept.