Barry Jones

My Life by David Lange

November 2005, no. 276

David Lange’s autobiography was published on 1 August 2005. Twelve days later, he died in Auckland, at the age of sixty-three, after kidney failure and a long battle with amyloidosis, a rare disorder of plasma cells in the bone marrow, having been kept alive by a pacemaker, chemotherapy, peritoneal dialysis, and blood transfusions. He had been a diabetic for many years. When My Life appeared, press reports concentrated on isolated paragraphs and sentences, containing critical remarks about his former ministers, and about Bob Hawke. The book could have been dismissed as shrill vituperation, but it is far more than that. My Life is a touching, searching and reflective work, deeply analytical and self-critical. David showed great courage in completing an autobiography so close to death.

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Letters - April 2005

by Hidden Author •

April 2005, no. 270

ABR welcomes letters from our readers. Correspondents should note that letters may be edited. Letters and emails must reach us by the middle of the current month, and must include a telephone number for verification.

Barry Jones on the ODNB

Dear Editor,

I read Angus Trumble’s review of The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ABR, March 2005) with close interest and some envy. It was probably inevitable that he should concentrate on entries with Australian relationships. He comments that all deceased Australian prime ministers are there, except Scullin and Page. In fact, Fadden and Forde are also missing.

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The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy by Jussi Hanhimäki

by Barry Jones •

March 2005, no. 269

Barry Jones reviews ‘The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy’ by Jussi Hanhimäki

Henry Kissinger is one of the most fascinating, enigmatic, brilliant, paradoxical, and infuriating figures in recent US history. Born in Germany in 1923, he emigrated to the US with his family in 1938 and was naturalised in 1943. After army service and picking up a Harvard PhD, he became an academic there and an adviser to various think-tanks on global strategy and defence. He owed his introduction to government work, surprisingly, to Nelson Rockefeller, leader of the liberal wing of the Republican Party, but attained superstar status working for Rockefeller’s bête noire, Richard Milhous Nixon. He was Nixon’s Assistant for National Security Affairs 1969–75 and Secretary of State 1973–77, continuing under Gerald Ford after Nixon’s forced resignation over Watergate, in August 1974. He shared the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize with Le Duc Tho, who refused it for his efforts, premature as it turned out, to end the Vietnam War.

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The Macmillan Dictionary of Biography by Barry Jones and M.V. Dixon

by Kevin Childs •

August 1986, no. 83

Kevin Childs reviews 'The Macmillan Dictionary of Biography' by Barry Jones and M.V. Dixon

Ah, unblissful ignorance. Having recently travelled through part of the Eyre Peninsula, I wish that I had known more about Edward John Eyre, English explorer and administrator.

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