Gideon Haigh: ‘The Brilliant Boy’ Remembering the Achievements of Dr H.V. Evatt

Herbert Vere Evatt and Robert Gordon Menzies led parallel and overlapping lives. Both were: born in 1894, from modest backgrounds, had brilliant minds, able to receive educational opportunities thanks to winning academic prizes, presidents of university student councils, passionate about art and cricket, remarkably successful lawyers who shaped future jurisprudence, served as Attorney General, earned international repute, and led political causes which they firmly believed in. However, because Menzies bested Evatt at three elections whilst the Labor Party was torn apart by internal strife, these days Evatt is often remembered as little more than a ‘hapless and divisive opposition leader’ who enable an unprecedented political supremacy.

Gideon Haigh’s book The Brilliant Boy: Doc Evatt and the Great Australian Dissent seeks to resurrect Evatt’s reputation by drawing attention to his unique and influential legal mind, arguing that he should be defined by his achievements rather than the disappointments of his later career. As Haigh puts it, ‘long before we spoke of “public intellectuals”, Evatt was one: a dashing advocate, an inspired jurist, an outspoken opinion maker, one of our first popular historians and the nation’s foremost champion of modern art’.

Gideon Haigh has been a journalist for almost four decades, published more than 40 books and contributed to more than 100 newspapers and magazines. His books include The Cricket Wars, The Summer Game and On Warne (which won numerous prizes) on cricket, and works on BHP, James Hardie and how abortion became legal in Australia. His book The Office: A Hardworking History won the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction. He has appeared widely on radio and TV.