AustLit

'In April 2018, I was invited to submit an expression of interest for the position of visiting Cabinet historian to the National Archives of Australia (NAA). I was informed that the Archives had consulted the Australian Historical Association and my name had been ‘highly recommended’. I was quietly thrilled at the invitation. As a biographer and political historian, my own research interests in recent years had meshed into a focus on leadership and executive government. Naturally, I had always taken a keen interest in the annual New Year’s Day release of the Cabinet records, poring over the newspaper reports. Now I was being offered the opportunity to be an integral part of that process, to gain a privileged window into the engine room of national government. I duly submitted an expression of interest and by early May had been formally offered the position. I accepted the offer with enthusiasm.' (Introduction)

'Whether the product of the economics of Australia’s small book-buying market or a self-deprecating national temperament, there is something of an inhibition towards examining lives that have already received biographical treatment. H.V. Evatt defies that convention. John Murphy’s is the fourth full-scale biography of him. In the introduction, Murphy suggests that, despite those previous studies, Evatt has mostly remained “out of focus, evading capture or only being captured in fragments”.'  (Introduction)