James Button

James Button experienced a gentle midlife crisis. Instead of buying a red car and running away with his secretary he quit journalism and journeyed to Canberra, ostensibly to be Kevin Rudd's speechwriter. That did not work out and this book is the result. It rambles between topics such as the Australian Public Service, the Australian Labor Party and the author's father's long involvement with it. There is also a mixture of biography and autobiography. These topics are interesting but read show more more as a sequence of essays than as a coherent book. James Button changed career from journalism to public service (and later, grassroots ALP volunteer). Unfortunately, his public servant's circumspection overcame his journalist's need to reveal truth to the public. Even the biographical elements seem muted and restrained. As a consequence of this restraint, the book does not ultimately say much. show less

Since I was attracted by the insider's point of view of the Kevin Rudd leadership style, I inevitably found the rest of Button's book underwhelming. My fault rather than his perhaps. I liked the sections about his short and unsuccessful attempts to write speeches for a Prime Minister who preferred to sit up until 3am writing his own. His autobiographical reflections were engaging too, but I found his account of life as a public servant rather turgid. Others may not, I suppose.

A highly readable and often moving personal recollection of family life and Labor Party politics in recent Australian history.

Perfectly awful.