- This is so good and delightful, and a brilliantly funny book in all sorts of ways. It's clever, outrageous and way over the top. McKenzie-Murray's prose is punchy and often vulgar, and his Aussie dialogue hits the mark.
- Toby Beaverbrook, son of English Baron George Beaverbrook II, tries to bring a measure of Churchillian eloquence to his political masters when he finally lands his dream job as a Canberra speechwriter.- The book has not received too many generous plaudits from Canberra-based political and media hacks who seemed to want something far more satirically serious, but these leaden sensibilities are tiresome. The author obviously set out to write a witty, comical, lighthearted read, and he's totally succeeded in my view.
- There is perhaps an underlying critique of our political and public service elite, where rank self interest and stupidity rules, but it's a light touch. That's all that's needed.
- The narrator, our junior speechwriter, ends up being thrown in jail for infusing a few drops of LSD into the prime minister's coffee, so he gets to read his memoir to Garry, his cell mate. Garry's comments, dotted throughout, are hilarious.
- If you're stuck in lockdown, here's something to well and truly lighten the load.
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