Gravity: Inside the PM’s Office during Her Last Year and Final Days (Mary Delahunty, Hardie Grant)

Much has been written about the legacy of Australia’s first female prime minister. In the latest book to analyse the significance of Julia Gillard’s tenure, Mary Delahunty examines the ways Gillard was undone from within her own party. Delahunty had unparalleled access to Gillard in the days immediately preceding and following the leadership spill that ousted her, and as a result of this close proximity the book offers a unique insight into the series of events that led to Gillard’s downfall. Delahunty is sympathetic to Gillard’s experience, drawing on her extensive first-hand experience as a former MP in a divided party. Her journalistic skill is evident in the clarity and precision with which she recounts Gillard’s resilience and eventual undoing. Delahunty has a particular interest in the intersection of politicians’ public personas with their private lives, as chronicled in her memoir Public Life, Private Grief. In Gravity, she again examines the internal contradictions political life demands. She also recognises the insidious public and political sexism Gillard was subjected to, and concludes that there remains a national unease associated with female power. Gravity can be read as a companion to Anne Summers’ feminist polemic The Misogyny Factor, and the recent essay collection edited by Samantha Trenoweth, Bewitched and Bedevilled: Women Write the Gillard Years.

Veronica Sullivan is a bookseller and the deputy online editor of Kill Your Darlings

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

Category: Reviews