A NOTE ON THE CHARACTERS
IN AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC LIFE

As Mr Dickens and Mr Thackeray have established in earlier works in this series, names are often a useful guide to the understanding of character. Think of Mr Pumblechook, the odious Uriah Heep, Mr Dobbin and the marvellous Mr Magwitch, (part magic, part witch) late of New South Wales.

Between these covers we are introduced to Mr Howard, whose name is not quite ‘hero’ and not quite ‘coward’, and who took his current position from the appropriately depressing Mr Downer and the unfortunate Mr Peacock. We also meet the somewhat green Mr Bush, the slightly frayed Mr Warne and the open and very welcoming Mr Dawe.

For those who may have just joined us, the following characters also crop up from time to time, as the story requires:

Mr Costello. A combination of cost and hello. A man who diminishes wealth cheerily.
Mr Vaile. One who deals in secrets. Possibly in trade.
Mr Ruddock. A combination of rodent and buttock. Not a happy fellow. Doomed.
Amanda Vanstone. Amanda, a fixer. Van stone, up front and hard.
Mr Abetz. One who helps. Not the one who has the actual idea
Mr Minchin. A pinched person; one who munches at society’s vitals.
Mr Abbott. One who does the work of some sort of religious order.
Mrs Bishop. One who can move diagonally over any number of unoccupied squares.
Mr Latham. A combination of lathe and ham. A handcrafted loose cannon.
Barnaby Joyce. Barter and choice conspiring to produce no result. Big hat. No cattle.
Mr Swan. One who drifts elegantly about on the surface of things.
Mr Turnbull. Forceful, larger than life; changeable, possibly given to rampage.
Mr Boswell. A big, genial, ruddy-faced character; part boss, part swell.
Mr Nelson. A man with a telescope to his famously blind eye. He sees no signal.
Mr Heffernan. Heifer, a young cow. Unpredictable. Absurd
Mr Windschuttle. Imagines he is talking sense when he is simply shuttling the wind.
Mr Beazley. A swarming man who brings us out in hives.
Mr Rudd. An intoxicating mixture of Rhetoric and Elmer Fudd. Is he going to win? We don’t know. Will it be easy for him to fix the problems? No it won’t. But will he be giving it a red hot go? Yes, he most certainly will.