Andrew Fisher is one of the giants of early twentieth century Australian politics, who served as Prime Minister and whose influence continues to this day. He was not, however, a particularly interesting person.

Fisher was a dour, serious man with a very thick Scottish accent who was born to great poverty and started his working life in the coalmines aged ten. After migrating to Australia he became involved in politics and the rest is history. While the thick accent and the dour seriousness would be drawbacks to a successful political career today, it did not seem to hamper Fisher, who was also an extremely intelligent man who was an expert in just about any issue you could name. "Andrew Fisher" covers Fisher well but you end up hoping Bastian uncovered a scandal that would have enlivened the book more. ( )