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On a political level, Ben Chifley is a Labor icon who vies with John Curtin for the top place in the party's pantheon of heroes. But like Curtin, he was admired across political boundaries. As prime minister from 1945-49, he established many of the policies that became an accepted part of Australian life: mass immigration, full employment, the Snowy Mountains Scheme, to name just a few. In contrast to our age of privatisation and economic rationalism, Chifley stood for a strong state sector able to moderate the excesses of capitalism. However, Chifley's personal life had melancholic resonances. In his early childhood he was sent from his parents' house to live a primitive rural life with his grandfather. His marriage was childless, to his bitter regret, and he was involved for much of it with another woman in whose company he was destined to die. Chifley is a gripping and essential political biography from David Day, author of "John Curtin: A Life" and winner of the 2000 Queensland Premier's Prize for History.are /