“The best decision of my life was to go into Labor politics. The second best decision I ever made was to leave politics.”

But does a powerbroker like Stephen Loosley ever leave the political world?

In his candid memoir, Loosley writes about defending the indefensible, the best way to start and kill off rumours, the value of truth in campaigning, how to use humour to squash a scandal, the key to fundraising and why bullshit always comes back to smother you.