My Own Life

An Autobiography

by Hazel Hawke

The Text Publishing Company, 1992, ISBN 1863721010, black and white photographic plates, hardcover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, some edge and shelf wear, some rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, no inscriptions, dustjacket shows a little edge and shelf wear with a little rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, a little chipping and minor creasing (see photographs)

“Hazel Hawke’s story spans decades of enormous change in the way Australian families live – and live together.
The days of childhood she remembers so vividly – the loving family home with its abundant garden, singsongs round the piano, neighbourhood kids, bush holidays, the duty to be good and kind and honest – will touch chords of recognition in many Australians.
Hazel Masterson’s love affair with Bob Hawke – they were two passionate, idealistic eighteen-year-olds – began in the puritanical fifties.  It survived her sense of isolation, caring for young children in a strange city, and his all-consuming engagement with the labour movement and the gregarious world of politics.  Since then, the Hawkes’ marriage has been conducted, for a large part, in the public eye.  Hazel Hawke writes about the private partnership – the difficult and unhappy times, the high and happy times, the reliance of one upon the other, her stalwart refusal to give up on the family dream, their resistance to invaders of many kinds – an often turbulent partnership, but strong and surviving.”