'What follows hereafter if my edited, collated and slightly amended transcription of twelve one-hour Sony cassette tapes which a drunk and disaffected officer of ASIO put, despite my protests, in the boot of my 1972 Volvo late on New Year's Eve, after we had drunk rather too much Guinness...'

-- Bob Ellis

This seemingly ordinary, normal, even trivial act became the revelations contained in The Hewson Tapes, an extraordinary invented history in which the hearts and minds of the great and powerful and the soon-to-be powerful, and the also-rans, are laid bare. The party room deliberations and internecine jealousies faithfully recorded and made public for the first and only time. What Paul does to John. What John thinks of Paul, Richo, Bronwyn, Johnny Howard, Andrew, Joh, Iron Bar, Barry Jones, Lady Thatcher, J.M. Keynes, the Spirits of Christmas, the Christ of Baltimore, Jeff Kennett, chocolate crackles and the yen that Carolyn could not control. Not since Watergate has history, in the raw, and on the run, and down the gurgler, been more thoroughly, and intimately, and unexpectedly observed.

Publisher Hemynge & Condell, c/o Cameron's Management, 7th fl. 61 Marlborough St., Surry Hills 2010. Ph. 029319-7199.