A very good review of the decline and downfall of every Australian Prime Minister from Barton to Abbott (and including Lyne, the almost-first Prime Minister). After reading this you can’t help but wonder how on earth some of these Prime Ministers could have reached the top office in the land.

“The Manner of their Going” further confirms my suspicions that Billy McMahon was the worst Prime Minister we have had to deal with, followed by Joseph Cook (although we probably need more time to judge where Abbott’s term fits on the spectrum). I also notice that authors seem to have a soft spot for Sir George Reid, our third Prime Minister, with Abjorensen imagining him as the life of the party.

Of the four shortest serving Prime Ministers, it’s interesting to note that many Liberal politicians wanted Country Party leader John McEwen to extend his three weeks as PM rather than hand the office to one of their own, while Fadden and Forde were unlucky not to be given more time and Abjorensen seems quite dismissive of Page.

Of course, what strikes the reader more than anything else is that of the twenty eight former Prime Ministers, only Menzies (in his second go in the Lodge) got to choose the manner of their going. Indeed, of the other twenty seven, only eleven were defeated in a general election and three died in office. Seven were deposed by their own party. No wonder Australia is world renowned in political circles for being particularly bloodthirsty.

My only criticism is that this book shows all the hallmarks of being rushed into print, as there are more typos and mistakes than one would expect of a book of this standard. ( )