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Rudd V. Abbott
Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott have resumed battle for leadership of the nation. Here, in one volume, are their definitive portraits by Australia's pre-eminent biographer and investigative journalist. Power Trip shows the making of Kevin Rudd, from the formative tragedy of his life - the death of his father - to his years as Wayne Goss's right-hand man, his relentless work in federal Opposition and finally his record as prime minister. Throughout Rudd's life, Marr finds recurring a tendency to chaos, a mania for control, a strange mix of heady ambition and retreat - and what has so far been an unbreakable bond with the public. In Political Animal , Marr examines the question that Australians are asking of Tony what kind of man is he and how might he run the country? Part fighter and part charmer, Abbott is deeply religious and deeply political. What happens when his values clash with his absolute determination to win? That is the great puzzle of a career that began as a wild university politician in the 1970s and seeks culmination in the prime ministership. "David Marr is as brilliant a biographer and journalist as this country has produced." - Peter Craven, Spectator Australia David Marr has written for the Sydney Morning Herald , the Age and the Monthly , been editor of the National Times , a reporter for Four Corners , presenter of ABC TV's Media Watch and now writes for the Guardian . His books include Patrick A Life , The High Price of Heaven , Dark Victory (with Marian Wilkinson) and three Quarterly Essays.
358 pages, Paperback
First published July 2, 2013
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About the author
David Marr
39 books104 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Eminent Australian journalist, author, and progressive political and social commentator. David Marr is the multi-award-winning author of Patrick White: A Life, Panic and The High Price of Heaven, and co- author with Marian Wilkinson of Dark Victory. He has written for the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age, The Saturday Paper, The Guardian Australia and the Monthly. He has been editor of the National Times, a reporter for Four Corners and presenter of ABC TV’s Media Watch. He is also the author of two previous bestselling biographical Quarterly Essays: Power Trip: The Political Journey of Kevin Rudd and Political Animal: The Making of Tony Abbott. His areas of expertise include Australian politics, law, censorship, the media and the arts. David Marr began his career in 1973 and is the recipient of four Walkley awards for journalism. He also appears as a semi-regular panellist on the ABC television programs Q&A and Insiders.
Eminent Australian journalist, author, and progressive political and social commentator. David Marr is the multi-award-winning author of Patrick White: A Life, Panic and The High Price of Heaven, and co- author with Marian Wilkinson of Dark Victory. He has written for the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age, The Saturday Paper, The Guardian Australia and the Monthly. He has been editor of the National Times, a reporter for Four Corners and presenter of ABC TV’s Media Watch. He is also the author of two previous bestselling biographical Quarterly Essays: Power Trip: The Political Journey of Kevin Rudd and Political Animal: The Making of Tony Abbott. His areas of expertise include Australian politics, law, censorship, the media and the arts. David Marr began his career in 1973 and is the recipient of four Walkley awards for journalism. He also appears as a semi-regular panellist on the ABC television programs Q&A and Insiders.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 16, 2014
Professional, balanced, high-quality profiles of both politicians, providing clarity into the character of each.
February 21, 2021
While this is just two of Marr's Quarterly Essays tacked together and published with a nice cover, and not a singular, cohesive book, his two biographies covering Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott are nevertheless very good. Marr is a Labor man himself, and so his politics and values are often quiet at odds with my own, but he takes a surprisingly neutral and fair approach to these two leaders. I found his general refusal for sensationalist slander against Abbott to be pleasantly surprising. As do the best of these publications, Marr demonstrates here why the Australian culture and its political landscape is so much better and more constructive than what you see in leading countries like England and the United States. As far as one may disagree with another - and, don't get me wrong, there are some very contentious issues in Australia, and not a few quite despicable people (unfortunately more from my own side) such as Alan Jones and Mark Latham - there persists a definite preference for civility here. And Rudd V. Abbott showcases that. Marr explores his subjects with a clear and generally non-biased lens (barring the occasional condescension towards Abbott's Catholic convictions), which allows him to honestly highlight both mens' strengths and weaknesses, their successes and humiliations, while all the time never forgetting they are humans like everyone else, with their hearts and intentions usually in the right place, more so than many give them credit for.
January 2, 2026
The book showcases Rudd as a religious know it all that wanted too much control. Despite this not coming across as an external viewer.
Kevin ‘07 was the first election I remember and I remember it being very weird because I only knew Howard as the Australian PM.
The essay describes very well the history of both men and the nurturing they received to shape them into the Prime Ministers they were.
Abbott seems to be portrayed as a Darth Vader who is being trained by the Darth Sidious of Santamaria.
It is interesting the book was published prior to Abbott leading the country and the subsequent spill to Turnbull.
Marr does a brilliant job and I will be looking for more of his work. Furthermore, the use of sources at the end of the book to justify the quotes in the Essays was fantastic. It allowed me to then look for those quotes and watch them occur to get further context.
Kevin ‘07 was the first election I remember and I remember it being very weird because I only knew Howard as the Australian PM.
The essay describes very well the history of both men and the nurturing they received to shape them into the Prime Ministers they were.
Abbott seems to be portrayed as a Darth Vader who is being trained by the Darth Sidious of Santamaria.
It is interesting the book was published prior to Abbott leading the country and the subsequent spill to Turnbull.
Marr does a brilliant job and I will be looking for more of his work. Furthermore, the use of sources at the end of the book to justify the quotes in the Essays was fantastic. It allowed me to then look for those quotes and watch them occur to get further context.
February 21, 2021
Everything I hoped it would be, and more. David Marr is a very talented writer.
He interviews her ...
Q: Whose religious faith do you think bears more fruit in their works?
A: You know the answer already.
Q: I take it, Rudd?
A: Yep.
Q: With two words (or phrases) each, give a positive and a negative about each man's prime ministership.
A: Abbot ... unashamedly Catholic, but uncompassionate. Rudd ... great with ideas, but a bit psycho in his implementation.
Q: If you were a T-Rex, and both men were in front of you and running away, and you had no political bias of course, which one would you eat?
A: Kevin Rudd probably.
Q: I reckon Abbot actually. Rudd would be all flaccid. Abbot's flesh would be lean and muscular. And probably with a better diet.
He interviews her ...
Q: Whose religious faith do you think bears more fruit in their works?
A: You know the answer already.
Q: I take it, Rudd?
A: Yep.
Q: With two words (or phrases) each, give a positive and a negative about each man's prime ministership.
A: Abbot ... unashamedly Catholic, but uncompassionate. Rudd ... great with ideas, but a bit psycho in his implementation.
Q: If you were a T-Rex, and both men were in front of you and running away, and you had no political bias of course, which one would you eat?
A: Kevin Rudd probably.
Q: I reckon Abbot actually. Rudd would be all flaccid. Abbot's flesh would be lean and muscular. And probably with a better diet.
September 27, 2022
Well written but very biased against Liberal Party Leader
October 8, 2013
It was clever marketing to put these two essays together. I read this book over the second last week of the 2013 election campaign with the extremely depressing knowledge that Abbott would be Prime Minister by the time I’d finished my holiday and returned to Australia.
Despite this, the essays are a beguiling package. Marr is an elegant and succinct writer. His argument in regard to Rudd is that anger is a strong motif for him. Here is a quote from the interview he did with Kerry O’Brien when the essay was first released.
“DAVID MARR, AUTHOR & JOURNALIST: He's there, but he's so hard to read. It's so hard to tell what the real Kevin Rudd is, who this real person is in there.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Now why is that?
DAVID MARR: Well I think the answer is because he very carefully disguises that real person and the real person is a very angry person. Now, anger doesn't disqualify himself from high public office, but I think he's driven by very old angers, and when they're released - and I seem to remember you saw a little of this recently ... “
And some more
“When you see the - when you know of the fact that behind closed doors there is a lot of rage in his office, that there's a lot of - there's a lot of cold rage and hot rage in his office. When you look at this pattern of his life, when you look at the kind of angry determination from the time he was a kid, from the time he was 15 or 16, to rescue himself from this predicament that, you know, the bad hand that had been dealt him and his mother and siblings back then, you see this kind of implacable determination. And what makes sense of it is anger. What makes sense of the way in which it's personal, implacable and pursued relentlessly? Anger makes sense of it.”
His argument about Abbott is that ''Politics Abbott'' and ''Values Abbott'' . He believes that in an Abbott prime ministership, the two Tonys would be in perpetual struggle with unpredictable consequences. This also plays out physically: “He is engaged in a strange war with his body. Marr writes: ”He walks as though he has to will each leg forward. It’s curious in a man who is so obviously fit. His face is skin and bone. He smiles but his eyes are hooded. The overall effect is faintly menacing, as if he’s about to climb into the ring.” I loved this description.
Marr sums up him up as “An aggressive populist with a sharp tongue; a political animal with lots of charm; a born protege with ambitions to lead; a big brain but no intellectual; a bluff guy who proved a more than competent minister; a politician with little idea of what he might do if he ever got to the top; and a man profoundly wary of change.” Ohh – it might be a long three (six) years…
I’m looking forward to reading Marr’s essay about Cardinal Pell.
Despite this, the essays are a beguiling package. Marr is an elegant and succinct writer. His argument in regard to Rudd is that anger is a strong motif for him. Here is a quote from the interview he did with Kerry O’Brien when the essay was first released.
“DAVID MARR, AUTHOR & JOURNALIST: He's there, but he's so hard to read. It's so hard to tell what the real Kevin Rudd is, who this real person is in there.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Now why is that?
DAVID MARR: Well I think the answer is because he very carefully disguises that real person and the real person is a very angry person. Now, anger doesn't disqualify himself from high public office, but I think he's driven by very old angers, and when they're released - and I seem to remember you saw a little of this recently ... “
And some more
“When you see the - when you know of the fact that behind closed doors there is a lot of rage in his office, that there's a lot of - there's a lot of cold rage and hot rage in his office. When you look at this pattern of his life, when you look at the kind of angry determination from the time he was a kid, from the time he was 15 or 16, to rescue himself from this predicament that, you know, the bad hand that had been dealt him and his mother and siblings back then, you see this kind of implacable determination. And what makes sense of it is anger. What makes sense of the way in which it's personal, implacable and pursued relentlessly? Anger makes sense of it.”
His argument about Abbott is that ''Politics Abbott'' and ''Values Abbott'' . He believes that in an Abbott prime ministership, the two Tonys would be in perpetual struggle with unpredictable consequences. This also plays out physically: “He is engaged in a strange war with his body. Marr writes: ”He walks as though he has to will each leg forward. It’s curious in a man who is so obviously fit. His face is skin and bone. He smiles but his eyes are hooded. The overall effect is faintly menacing, as if he’s about to climb into the ring.” I loved this description.
Marr sums up him up as “An aggressive populist with a sharp tongue; a political animal with lots of charm; a born protege with ambitions to lead; a big brain but no intellectual; a bluff guy who proved a more than competent minister; a politician with little idea of what he might do if he ever got to the top; and a man profoundly wary of change.” Ohh – it might be a long three (six) years…
I’m looking forward to reading Marr’s essay about Cardinal Pell.
January 6, 2023
Marr is a masterful writer. His insights into both Rudd and Abbott are penetrating and reveal much about this nation and its politics
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews