Tom Hughes Qc: A Cab On The Rank

Author: Ian Hancock

Stock information

General Fields

  • : 59.95 AUD
  • : 9781760020583
  • : Federation Press
  • : Federation Press
  • :
  • : 0.788
  • : May 2016
  • : 234mm X 156mm
  • : Australia
  • : 65.95
  • : May 2016
  • :
  • :
  • : books

Special Fields

  • :
  • :
  • :
  • :
  • :
  • :
  • :
  • :
  • :
  • :
  • :
Barcode 9781760020583
9781760020583

Description

For more than thirty years, Tom Hughes, a scion of a notable Sydney family of high achievers, was one of Australia's top barristers, renowned, respected and sometimes feared for his dominating presence in the courtroom. Equally at home in all jurisdictions, his theatrical style, command of language and forensic skills filled public galleries, exposed witnesses, persuaded juries and ensured that judges paid attention. An icon of the Sydney and Australian Bar, he appeared in a raft of celebrated cases, became the subject of many media profiles and was, from the 1970s to the 1990s, the country's most expensive advocate. Hughes has also been a wartime pilot, a politician, an activist Federal Attorney-General, a grazier, and a racehorse owner. He survived a broken marriage, a spiteful sacking from ministerial office and a prolonged though not permanent loss of an inherited Catholic faith. He endured years of frustration before finding the right partner to replicate the perfect marriage of his beloved parents. Even in dark times, however, a thorough professional and a prodigious worker, Hughes remained focused on his first love, the law, always upholding its traditions and processes. In addition to published material, the book draws on a huge trove of personal records, including fee books, intimate diaries, autobiographical jottings and private correspondence, supplemented by interviews with Hughes, his family, friends and colleagues. Using these sources, the book provides insights into a many-sided character while telling the story of how Hughes, and his immediate forebears, embraced more of their English than their Irish heritage while becoming distinctively Australian. It also offers a personal perspective on several decades of Australian political, social and legal history.

Author description

Ian Hancock is an Editorial Fellow of the Australian Dictionary of Biography, part of the National Centre of Biography located in the College of Arts Social Sciences at the Australian National University. A graduate of Melbourne and Oxford Universities, he has researched, taught and published in several areas, including African and Australian history and politics, and British imperial history. For ten years he was the historical consultant to the National Archives for the annual release of Cabinet records and has been a member of the National Archives Advisory Council and of the Editorial Advisory Board for the Documents on Australian Foreign Policy. His two most recent books are The Liberals: A History of the NSW Division of the Liberal Party of Australia 1945-2000 (2007) and Nick Greiner: A Political Biography (2013). He has also published chapters on Sir Robert Askin in The Premiers of NSW (Vol 2), 1901-2005 (2006), Sir John Carrick in The Worldly Art of Politics (2006) and Sir Arthur Roden Cutler and Sir David Martin in The Governors of New South Wales 1788-2010 (2009), all commissioned by the Committee for the Sesquicentenary of Responsible Government in New South Wales, 1856-2006. In 2011, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the National Archives published his monograph Australian Policy Towards Rhodesia/Zimbabwe in 1979-1980 in the RG Neale Lecture Series.

Table of contents

Abbreviations Preface 1. The Inheritance 2. Childhood and education 3. 'It's great flying all day, morning and afternoon' 4. 'a relatively lucky and safe war' 5. 'a mixture of frustration and hope ... followed by disappointment' 6. 'with optimism as one's guiding star' 7. 'right out of national security central casting' 8. 'I felt as if I was walking a tight-rope' 9. An 'Insider' and an 'Outsider' 10. 'the Queen's Agent administering the law for her' 11. Public Order: 'exercising caution, moderation and restraint' 12. Testing the extent of Commonwealth power 13. 'you change the course with no regrets for the past' 14. President of NSW Bar Association 15. 'the best of times' and 'the worst of times' 16. The Robinson Royal Commission 17. 'From Silk to Riches' 18. Two 'happy auspicious' events 19. An 'exquisitely difficult case' and a 'difficult' client 20. Four defamation cases 21. 'the venerable lion of the Sydney bar' 22. 'I am still enjoying practice' 23. 'The profession has every reason to be grateful to you' Appendix Select Bibliography Index