In this groundbreaking biographical study, Peter FitzSimons exposes the character behind this enigmatic politician—his ambitions, his back-room manoeuvring, and previously uncharted realms of his political and private life. Learning the rules of the game at the kitchen table, politics for Beazley was a family business. Handing out 'how to vote' cards for his father at polling booths, helping migrants at the Fremantle docks when his father was a Labor MP, and watching Labor Party meetings from outside the town hall window, Kim Beazley knew the gritty reality of politics before he became an elected politician in his own right. This is a revealing—and often surprising—portrait of the man who has had a quiet but profound effect on Australian politics. More than this, FitzSimons reveals hitherto unknown accounts of the Hawke-Keating battle, the move to privatise Australia's telecommunications, and the Cheryl Kernot move to Labor. The author's extraordinary access to Beazley's diaries and letters, to his colleagues, family, friends, rivals, and to the man himself, makes this the major political biography of the year.