Gough Whitlam: charismatic, inspirational, a trailblazer. There has been no one like him in our nation's public life - a dynamic and visionary leader determined to modernise Australia, who ushered in a new era and left a lasting legacy. But Whitlam's immense self-belief, mistakes and misjudgements, blunders and blind spots were truly Shakespearean and help explain his downfall.

Drawing on thousands of pages of newly discovered archives and interviews with more than a hundred people, Troy Bramston, Australia's leading political biographer, gives the most comprehensively researched account of Whitlam's life and career ever published. It is an epic story of triumph and tragedy, filled with revelations that will captivate, surprise and shock, while providing new insights into Whitlam's family, upbringing and education; wartime service and legal career; ascendancy through the Labor ranks; leadership and prime ministership; and life post politics.

This is the definitive biography of Australia's 21st prime minister, and the first since his death in 2014, giving an unvarnished analysis of his achievements and failures, how he governed, and what Australia gained and lost under his leadership. Fifty years after the dismissal of Whitlam's government, a new assessment could not be more timely.