At the 2007 federal election former journalist Maxine McKew won a spectacular victory against John Howard and wrote herself into Australian political history as only the second candidate to have ever defeated a sitting prime minister in his constituency seat.

An intimate account of one of the most tumultuous periods in Australian politics, as well as a tale of personal change, this memoir discusses what went wrong during the 2010 elections--which left the Labor party clinging to the wreckage and forced into minority government. Bringing a reporter's eye and an insider's knowledge to a story that has caused despair among Labor supporters and produced disillusionment among the electorate, this book counters the view that Julia Gillard was a reluctant deputy who was forced to move against a chaotic and dysfunctional Kevin Rudd--and offers a different version of events.


Includes bibliographical references (p. 246-250)