Tony Abbott pens strongly-worded Letter to the Editor

TONY Abbott is not the type of guy to let others fight his battles for him. So he did what any other aggrieved citizen would do.

Abbott’s weird letter to the editor

TONY Abbott is not the type to let others fight his battles for him.

So when faced with an unsatisfactory situation, the former prime minister did what any other aggrieved citizen would do — he penned a strongly worded letter to the editor.

Mr Abbott’s letter was published in The Australian today and responded to Ross Fitzgerald’s review of the book Battleground, which explores his failed leadership.

Fitzgerald was no fan of the book penned by Wayne Errington and Peter van Onselen, and described it as “hastily put-together”. He also noted that it relied heavily on anonymous sources, and that Mr Abbott and his former chief of staff Peta Credlin had refused to be interviewed.

“The reality is the authors have harvested ­numerous anti-Abbott stories from people who were plotting against him. Moreover, little is said and few are quoted in defence of Abbott as prime minister,” Fitzgerald said in his review.

But not content with someone else fighting his battles for him, Mr Abbott could not resist pointing out another failing of the book.

In a letter to the editor attributed to ‘Tony Abbott of Canberra’, he points to a claim on page 213 of the book where the authors state: “We would like to thank Tony Abbott for engaging with us”.

“He helped shaped our arguments in this book even if he may not like the conclusions we reached.”

Not so, Mr Abbott declared.

Tony Abbott writes letter to the editor about Battleground review.

“I did not ‘engage’ with the authors,” Mr Abbott wrote.

“They requested an interview and emailed questions. These were so obviously a stitch up that I declined to answer other than to deny some of their claims.

“The book — to put it at its kindest — is partisan advocacy rather than disinterested scholarship,” he stated.

Van Onselen responded to Mr Abbott’s criticism today on Twitter saying: “If the most ‘egregious’ error in our book is Abbott believing that him answering email questions isn’t ‘engaging’ (his opinion) that’s great.”

If the most 'egregious' error in our book is Abbott believing that him answering email questions isn't 'engaging' (his opinion) that's great

— Peter van Onselen (@vanOnselenP) December 15, 2015