We publish books that matter — narrative and literary nonfiction on important topics, and the best of local, international, and translated fiction.

We are thrilled to announce that Patrick Mullins has won the Douglas Stewart prize for non-fiction at this year’s New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards for his book Tiberius with a Telephone: the life and times of William McMahon.

The judges said:

This is an impressive work of political biography, an achievement all the greater for its unpromising, though fascinatingly complex, subject. Tiberius with a Telephone is distinguished by the author’s confident, witty style and his willingness to stand back and let his subject speak for himself. Mullins’ ability to deliver acerbic sketches of the major players of postwar Australian politics is a rare gift. In McMahon himself he has created one of the great comic characters of Australian history.