Tony abbott author biography of suzanne

‘If he’s elected as our PM in the future I would be very scared for women everywhere.’ — Mia Freedman

When Julia Gillard — a woman who was unmarried and childless, and an atheist — became prime minister in 2010, Tony Abbott was left boiling with rage. Not only had he lost, but he had been defeated by a modern woman. For the time being, the ambitions of this fundamentalist Catholic and fiercely combative reactionary politician had been thwarted.

Tony Abbott, a former pugilist and would-be priest, has dedicated his public life to the prosecution of his deeply traditional values. A favoured son in his own family, and raised in a cloistered world of male institutions, he has always been drawn to powerful mentors from his own caste — priests, zealots, and father figures. Perhaps this is why so many voters, especially women, dislike him: they sense in Abbott’s default aggressiveness and lack of balance a man not attuned to their centre-of-the-road, secular interests.

In this blistering critique, Susan Mitchell explores how Australia’s would-be prime minister became the man he is today. He is at war, not just with the government, but in an unrelenting battle for the hearts and minds of the Australian people. There is still time, he believes, to achieve the position that his male mentors think he is destined to hold — that of leading the country back to ‘the proper order of things’. But is he the prime minister-in-waiting that the country has to have — or does he pose an unacceptable threat to his own party and to the nation?

Prime Minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015

For other people named Tony Abbott, see Tony Abbott (disambiguation).

Anthony John Abbott (; born 4 November 1957) is an Australian former politician who served as the 28th prime minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015. He held office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia and was the member of parliament (MP) for the New South Wales division of Warringah from 1994 to 2019.

Abbott was born in London, England, to an Australian mother and a British father, and moved to Sydney at the age of two. He studied economics and law at the University of Sydney, and then attended The Queen's College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar, studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics. After graduating from Oxford, Abbott briefly trained as a Roman Catholic seminarian, and later worked as a journalist, manager, and political adviser. In 1992, he was appointed director of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, a position he held until his election to parliament as a member of parliament (MP) for the division of Warringah at the 1994 Warringah by-election, before the election of the Howard government in 1996.

Following the 1998 election, Abbott was appointed Minister for Employment Services in the second Howard ministry. He was promoted to cabinet in 2001 as Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business. In 2003, Abbott became Minister for Health and Ageing, retaining this position until the defeat of the Howard government at the 2007 election. Initially serving in the shadow cabinets of Brendan Nelson and then Malcolm Turnbull, Abbott resigned from the front bench in November 2009, in protest against Turnbull's support for the Rudd government's proposed Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Forcing a leadership ballot on the subject, Abbott narrowly defeated Turnbull to become the party's leader and leader of the opposition. Abbott led the Liberal-National Coali

Hello and thanks for visiting my website. My name is Tony Abbott, and I am and have been a full-time children’s writer for almost 30 years. I have written about 107 books, including Danger Guys, The Secrets of Droon, Firegirl, Kringle, The Postcard, Lunch-Box Dream, Underworlds, Goofballs, The Copernicus Legacy, and many more.

My most recent books are Junk Boy (HarperCollins, 2020), The Great Jeff (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2019), The Summer of Owen Todd (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018), and Denis Ever After (HarperCollins, 2018).

I live and work in Trumbull, Connecticut, USA.

I speak at schools and conference. Click here for information about arranging a visit with your organization.

October 2020

Junk Boy was published on October 13. It is my first novel for young adult readers (YA). Reviews have been favorable, and it is a Junior Library Guild selection.

“This poignant novel in verse captures the bleakness and frustration of both teens’ lives and draws them out of their despair with courage and compassion. The end may be a little too neatly tied up, but after the preceding trauma, the conclusion is both hopeful and a relief.”

[from the Booklist Review]

June 2020

Junk Boy, my first YA novel will be published October 13, 2020.

Preorder it now from your favorite independent bookseller.

Publisher’s Description of Junk Boy:

Bestselling author Tony Abbott’s YA novel-in-verse is an unflinching and heartbreaking look at a boy’s junk-filled life, and the ways he finds redemption and hope.

Junk. That’s what the kids at school call Bobby Lang, mostly because his rundown house looks like a junkyard, but also because they want to put him down. Trying desperately to live under the radar at school—and at the home he shares with his angry, neglectful father—Bobby develops a sort o