Working with David

Working with David is Michael Bassett's eleventh book. It is a political memoir dealing initially with the Bassett-Lange family connections, and then with Michael and David's over-lapping political careers. Throughout his five terms in Parliament, Michael took extensive notes that were augmented by those of colleagues whenever he was away. Those caucus and cabinet notes of the ministry after 1984 form the core of the book. They were supplemented by extensive interviewing of the main ministerial players and with key public servants of the time. Many cabinet records are used throughout the story, and the book cites media comments from the time. The book is the story of a hugely talented leader who initially was fun to work for. However, the Prime Minister's dedication to the reforms that his government implemented was gradually undermined by his declining health, and his descent into alcoholism. Increasingly lonely and dependent on his speechwriter who was also his lover, Lange turned against his cabinet and developed autocratic tendencies. In the end his colleagues obliged him to resign in August 1989. It is a story that captures Lange's magic when at the height of his powers, and the despair that gradually overtook his colleagues as his brilliance tailed off into personal collapse.