Margaret and Gough Whitlam were a pairing far more than the sum of its parts

WHEN Gough Whitlam arrives, wherever he is bound, you can ­almost hear his late wife, Margaret.

MUST CREDIT: Prudence Upton... 27/09/2006 NEWS: **SEE NOTE ON PIC CREDIT BELOW** Former prime minister Gough Whitlam and his...

WHEN Gough Whitlam arrives, wherever he is bound, you can ­almost hear his late wife, Margaret, welcoming him with a characteristically droll aside to ask: “What on earth took you so long?”

She departed first, dying in March 2012, one month shy of their 70th anniversary. Pressed a decade earlier to illuminate the ­secret of their enduring marriage, the former prime minister spoke at great length of shared values, ­mutual attraction, etc, etc. Her explanation was briefer: “Inertia.” He screamed with laughter.

If height played its hand in partnering the 187cm former Bondi swim champion with a law student tall enough to dance cheek to cheek when they met in 1939 at a cocktail party for the Sydney University Dramatic Society, their ­humour kept each other on their toes. The alchemy of that first encounter sustained a grand passion for each other’s company, according to Susan Mitchell, author of a new book, Margaret and Gough — The Love Story That Shaped A ­Nation, to be published on Saturday. “Both of them said, ‘It was love at first sight’.” Mitchell, who is Margaret’s biographer, says “sheer chemistry” drew them together.

“Margaret thought, ‘You are the most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen and I’m going to have you’.” They married in 1942 with a short honeymoon memorable for the groom’s romantic recital of poetry in a voice always demanding of an audience.

“You cannot think of one without the other,” Mitchell says. “Neither could have achieved what they did without the other. They were extraordinary as individuals but they were even more extraordinary as a couple.

“Whilst Gough passed all the laws that changed the nation she was the glue that held it together.”

IN DEPTH: Gough Whitlam 1916 -2014

Had they come of age today they might have juggled political careers in the style of Bill and Hillary Clinton.

In the foreword to his account of the Whitlam years, Gough ­described Margaret as his “best ­appointment”.

ALP senator John Faulkner revealed that had Gough lost his 1966 bid for the parliamentary party leadership and faced expulsion, his plan was to resign so that Margaret could seek preselection for his seat of Werriwa.

INTERACTIVE: Whitlam’s long and fortunate life

Refreshingly outspoken, she often declared: “I say what I think when I want. I am not a mouthpiece for my husband or for the ALP.” Fearless in the swimming pool or at the microphone, she ventured where no other prime minister’s wife dared, telling the media after the 1972 election that she favoured legalising marijuana and decriminalising abortion.

In 2007, when they became inaugural national life members of the ALP, Gough said this honour was all the sweeter for Margaret’s acknowledgment. “If our generation had enjoyed the full benefits of the equality for women ... no limits need be set on the positions and honours which might have come her way.”

COMRADE: It’s time

Mitchell compares these Labor giants to the legendary US presidential union of Democrats Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt because of their legacy and the influence they enjoyed while they graced Australia with their energy and presence. “They believed ­totally in each other. They never lost faith with the Australian people, with the Labor Party, with all the things they tried to achieve.

“Gough said to me, ‘Whenever we talked about our marriage we agreed that neither of us could have done any better than choose the other’.”

Stories abounded yesterday of Margaret rapping her walking stick to wind up Gough’s loquacious remarks. Mitchell often witnessed them bantering, Margaret ticking off Gough, Gough responding in kind. “He was shattered when she died,” she says. “He didn’t really want to be around anymore.” Together again, they’ll raise hell, quip for quip.