John Winston Howard : The Biography (Hardcover)

John Howard has an image problem. He isn't the strong-willed man of principle his supporters like to imagine. Neither is he the rat-cunning opportunist feared and loathed by his opponents. Most importantly, for a man often accused of zealotry of various types, he's not much into political ideas. With a few exceptions borne out of his suburban middle-class upbringing, policies are just part of his armoury. Howard is both more mundane and more complex than his public persona. He enjoys family, cricket, and running the country. But while the image of the ordinary bloke has been helpful to his enduring popularity, Howard possesses a number of uncommon strengths that have helped him reach the top, most important of these being the rare tenacity that saw him through the lean years of opposition, and through the tumultuous first two terms as prime minister.