One Hundred Days of Summer

Written in Bob Ellis's inimitable style, this is a very personal book about the recent period of intense political change in Australia. Ellis's diary-style narrative starts on 12 November, 2009 (when Rhys Muldoon picks Ellis up from Parliament House and drives him to visit the poet Les Murray at Bunyah for some lively political discussions) and takes us through to when Bob's sometime mentor, Mike Rann, faces his recent assailant in in an Adelaide court. The book includes coverage and analysis of sittings of the New South Wales Parliament and the result of the South Australian election. A final section updates events through to April. Bob Ellis is close to many of the political players during this rapidly-changing period in Australian politics, but he also manages to stay plugged in to the cultural scene, and has plenty to say about the films, books and theatre of the period. 'If you are yet to become a convert to his laconic and hilarious writing, start now' – Canberra Times 'Bob Ellis is never less than hugely entertaining. He combines hyperbole, passion, intensely personal reminiscence, emotions always on the surface, implausible and outrageous generalisations and sullen anger into a hilarious mixture of Shakespearean rhetoric and good, old-fashioned Hunter S. Thompson-inspired gonzo journalism' – Sydney Morning Herald