After wresting the prime ministership from long-term adversary Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull’s term at the Lodge was brutally short. It traversed a soaring electoral honeymoon to the marathon 2016 election, to the compromises of a government with the slimmest of majorities and finally death by political sword. Why? Was it collateral damage for a Liberal Party tearing itself apart, or a consequence of the man himself? Born to Rule?, by esteemed journalist Paddy Manning, is the updated bestselling biography of one of Australia’s most celebrated overachievers, charting his very public highs and lows in technicolour detail.

Based on countless interviews and painstaking research, Born to Rule? charts Turnbull’s relentless progression from exclusive Point Piper to Oxford University; from beating the Thatcher government in the Spycatcher trial to losing the referendum on the republic; from defending the late Kerry Packer in a Royal Commission to defending his own role in Australia’s biggest corporate collapse. It gives forensic accounts of him striking it rich as co-founder of OzEmail, his spectacular misstep with the Utegate affair, and the hotly contested battle for Wentworth on his grand march towards become prime minister. Turnbull may be out of parliament, but will he ever be out of politics?