AustLit

'The cover photograph on A Fuhrer for a Father shows Jim Davidson with his then wife Olga. They are the parents of the author, Melbourne writer and historian Jim Davidson. The acknowledgment reads: “Olga and her keeper, Melbourne Zoo, c 1942, courtesy of the author.” The designation of Davidson the father as his wife’s “keeper” in a photo taken in a zoo is no accident. It reflects precisely how Davidson the son viewed his father in life. This memoir is “an account of my father and his consequences”. He elaborates in his preface:

'Authoritarianism was the basic assumption on which my father ran his family and faced the world … Everything was firm, definite, unequivocal and hierarchical — in the household, as beyond it … This [story] … reveals a particularly aberrant instance of patriarchy, expressed in domestic violence towards wives and a persistent antagonism towards a gay son.' (Introduction)

'When some years ago I read Jim Davidson’s outstanding biography, Lyrebird Rising (1994), I was initially concerned by what seemed to be his potentially distorting fascination with the scene-stealing Louise Hanson-Dyer. But I soon discovered I needn’t have worried. Jim Davidson is not the sort of biographer whose obsession with his subject overcomes proportion. On the contrary, his sense of humour, his alertness to the fallible, the ridiculous, and the noble reinforce rather than compete with his respect for, and absorption in, the recorded life. A style full of elegance, wit, and, when called for, irony, ranging from gentle to corrosive, constantly works sharply against any temptation to be over-impressed. In A Führer for a Father, however, this armoury is strained to its limits.' (Introduction)