By Maxine McKew Melbourne University Press, $29.99  POLITICAL
memoirs usually fall into one of two camps: the detailed tome
such as John Howard's account of his achievements in the Lodge,
or the lighter-touch, but no less forensic memoir of Labor
industry minister John Button. Both were informative and,
depending on your perspective, convincing. Howard wrote with an
unwavering eye on his place in history, while Button relished
the joy of elegant prose and a few unflattering insights into
party politics. Then there was The Latham Diaries, virulent but
penetrating in places.  Unless you're a prime minister, a
reforming national figure, a lively premier or a witness to a
scandal, it's hard to pen political non-fiction.  In June 2010,
Maxine McKew was up close and personal to what she believes was
a political scandal. Her anger as a Kevin Rudd loyalist at the
coup that toppled him drives this book but it's the insights as
an insider/outsider that carry its significance. Like McKew, I
was a television journalist g