The Way They Were: The View from the Hill of the 25 Years That Remade Australia

by Alan Ramsey

For many years in Australia, reading journalist Alan Ramsey’s vitriolic, insightful, and always engaging pieces in the Sydney Morning Herald was a standard feature of Saturday mornings. This book is the compilation of Ramsey’s best work, granting ample access to Australia’s national parliament and politicians. Reflecting upon how 25 years of national leadership by Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, and John Howard changed the nation forever, this collection also includes a discussion on the tumultuous political events of 2010 as well as the classic Ward O'Neill cartoons associated with Ramsey’s weekly column.

576 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2011

About the author

Alan Graham Ramsey (3 January 1938 – 24 November 2020) was an Australian journalist, and columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald. In 1953, he started working in journalism for Frank Packer, who then owned the Sydney Daily Telegraph. Ramsay gained experience working for small newspapers in Mount Isa and Darwin, before joining Australian Associated Press (AAP). He was a correspondent for AAP in Port Moresby and London, before being appointed in 1965 as a correspondent to travel with the first contingent of Australian combat troops to Vietnam. After returning to Australia, he was appointed to cover federal politics in Canberra for The Australian, in February 1966.

Ramsey wrote for a number of other publications before becoming a speech-writer for Australian Labor Party leader Bill Hayden until 1983. He wrote the national politics column for the Sydney Morning Herald from 1986 until his retirement in December 2008. In his 2009 book A Matter of Opinion, he published a selection of more than a decade of opinion pieces for The Herald. - wikipedia

Reviews

[Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who’d have thought this 543 page tome would be such a page turner. A brilliant, thoroughly captivating , sweeping vista of Australian politics and politicians, that will do nothing to assuage your cynicism about the motives and ethical standards of our representatives.