Robert Menzies

Sir Robert Gordon Menzies (20 December 1894 – 14 May 1978), Australian politician, was the twelfth and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia serving eighteen and a half years. He had a rapid rise to power, but his first term as Prime Minister was a failure. He spent eight years in the wilderness before playing a crucial role in reshaping the Liberal Party and making a successful comeback, and he dominated Australian politics in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Further reading

• Alan Martin, Robert Menzies: A Life, two volumes, Melbourne University Press, 1993 and 1999 (this competent but uninspiring official biography was delayed for many years by the unco-operative attitude of Dame Pattie Menzies.)
• Judith Brett, Robert Menzies' Forgotten People, Macmillan, 1992 (a sharply critical psychological study)