Malcolm Turnbull’s tome joins a long list

Malcolm Turnbull, Julia Gillard, Christopher Pyne and Darryn Hinch all have books out in 2020.

The most anticipated political book next year is Malcolm Turnbull’s memoir, A Bigger Picture, to be published by Hardie Grant on April 20. The dust jacket features a tieless Turnbull in full statesmanlike mode. It promises to be about “far more than just politics”, covering his family life, journalism career, the Spycatcher trial, working for Kerry Packer and making millions in business, along with his turbulent time in parliament.

The hardback weighs in at 704 pages — tiny compared with Kevin Rudd’s absurd 1300-page plus tomes. Can Turnbull outsell the biggest selling former prime ministers (in order): Gough Whitlam, John Howard and Bob Hawke? Well, the publisher promises an “exceptionally candid and compelling” memoir that is “lyrically written”. It says he will lift the lid on the “right-wing insurgency” that “brutally” ended his prime ministership. We’ll know soon enough.

A survey of Australia’s leading publishers on their notable political-themed books for next year reveals Turnbull is not the only former prime minister writing a book. In Women and Leadership (Penguin), Julia Gillard and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala analyse how gender adversely affects how women gain and lose power, and are perceived as leaders, alongside their own experiences. It is published in July.

Christopher Pyne is writing an as-yet-untitled memoir to be published by Hachette mid-year. Derryn Hinch has turned his mind to another memoir, Unfinished Business (MUP, due in April), which recounts his last few years as a senator. Does the title suggest a comeback? Former Greens senator Scott Ludlam hopes to have his memoir, Full Circle (Black Inc), out in September. And Robert Tickner, a Hawke-Keating era minister, tells the extraordinary story of finding his birth parents (Scribe, February).

Coalition MPs are nervously awaiting Malcolm Turnbull’s ‘exceptionally candid’ memoir.

Samantha Maiden’s book will cause consternation in Labor ranks.

While Coalition MPs nervously await Turnbull’s memoir, Samantha Maiden’s Party Animals (Penguin) will cause consternation in Labor ranks when published in March. Maiden has talked to the key players to find out how Labor lost the unlosable election. Chris Wallace — one of the few journalists to predict that Paul Keating would win the unwinnable 1993 election — identifies the 10 key steps needed to secure power in How to Win an Election (NewSouth) in May.

Tim Wilson has a plan for “renewing the liberal vision” in The New Social Contract (Connor Court). Has he told Scott Morrison? James Allan and Peter Kurti have an edited book of essays that offers a different perspective, Keeping Australia Right (Connor Court), also due by mid-year.

John Curtin’s great-grandson Toby Davidson is writing about the former prime minister’s “hidden literary life” in Good for the Soul (UWA, December). Sean Scalmer explores the life of colonial-era politician Graham Berry in Democratic Adventurer (Monash) published in May. Tom Frame is writing a biography of Philip Ruddock (Connor Court) to be published early in the new year. And like this writer, David Day is writing a biography of Bob Hawke (HarperCollins, October).

Marian Wilkinson examines the climate wars in Carbon Club, out in June, billed by Allen & Unwin as one of its most important books for next year. Paddy Manning, in Body Count (Simon & Schuster, May), argues climate change is “killing us”. In Solved! (Black Inc, March), Andrew Wear argues that thorny policy problems can be addressed by drawing on overseas experience.

Patrick McGorry shows how we can live a fulfilling and mentally healthy life in Mental Wealth (MUP), on shelves in November. Hugh Mackay shows how we can reconnect with ourselves and others in Hiding From Ourselves (Pan Macmillan), published by mid-year. Labor MP Andrew Leigh and Nick Terrell write about how to rebuild communities in Reconnected (La Trobe University Press), out in September.

In Hidden Hand (Hardie Grant), published in May, Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg document how the Chinese Communist Party seeks to “influence and interfere” in democratic processes around the world. David Brophy’s China Panic (La Trobe), released in August, suggests how Australia can deal with a changing China. Rory Medcalf explores the tensions in the region in Contest For the Indo-Pacific (La Trobe), out in March. Next month, as the US election year begins, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig chronicle Donald Trump’s presidency in A Very Stable Genius (Bloomsbury). Michael Pembroke questions whether the US is “still a force for good” in Play by the Rules (Hardie Grant), published in May. And Nick Bryant, in When America Stopped Being Great (Penguin), looks at the political, economic and cultural factors that led to the Trump presidency (out in September).

The inimitable AC Grayling examines the principles of democracy under threat in the Western world in The Good State (Bloomsbury), published in February. In People Without Power (Scribe), published in July, Thomas Frank takes on the elites and argues that “true populism” is the pathway to “promise and optimism”.

The standout Australian politics books this past year were Niki Savva’s Plots and Prayers (Scribe) and David Crowe’s Venom (Harper Collins), proving yet again that politics is never dull and the swirling mix of ambition and power makes for compelling reading.

Other tomes I enjoyed this year were Robert Caro’s Working (Penguin), Steve Richards’s The Prime Ministers (Atlantic Books), Jack Brown’s No 10: The Geography of Power, Geoffrey Blainey’s Before I Forget, Sue Pieters-Hawke’s Remembering Bob, and Roland Perry’s Tea and Scotch With Bradman (ABC Books). Over the summer, I’m looking forward to reading Tim Parks’s Medici Money (Atlas Books), Jean Edward Smith’s The Liberation of Paris (Simon & Schuster) and Charles Moore’s final volume in his epic biography of Margaret Thatcher, Herself Alone (Allen Lane). As always, happy reading.