Beautiful Lies : Australia from Menzies to Howard

Phillip Knightley, reviewing the first edition of this book almost thirty years ago in the Times Literary Supplement wrote: 'No other book that I know describes so succinctly the forces that in less than forty years turned Australia from a vassal of the United Kingdom into an independent power, which, if it owes any allegiance, owes it politically to the United States and economically to Japan. 'While the relationship between social change and political power has remained constant in Australia since the second world war, the author believes that all the TLS would have to do in the third millennium is change the word "Japan" for "China". 'Mark Twain observed more than a century ago that Australian history is "always picturesque; indeed, it is so curious and strange, that it is itself the chiefest novelty the country has to offer and so pushes the other novelties into second and third place.

It does not read like history, but like the most beautiful lies; and all of a fresh new sort, no mouldy old stale ones.

It is full of surprises and adventures, and inconguities, and contradictions, and incredibilities; but they are all true, they all happened."' This is still the case, most recently demonstrated when Prime Minister John Howard won his record fourth election despite a damaging row in the Liberal Party over whether or not a senior government senator had described the prime minister as a lying rodent. 'His book shows considerable talent for compressing great events into short space without distorting them too much in the process.' - Age 'To understand modern Australia, study this.' - Times Educational Supplement