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Turning Point, is the long-awaited sequel to The Second Chair. It starts with a dinner party after the federal elections of 1963. John Kennedy has been assassinated, the Menzies Government has been returned easily, and one of Hogarth’s friends is waiting to see whether or not he will be in the Ministry. Hogarth is offered the Deanship of his faculty, a job he doesn’t really want but is nonetheless attracted to. Before he makes his decision he attends the funeral of a family friend, and the death of that woman progressively unlocks an extraordinary story of the war, and of his father’s role in it.

His MP friend is the conduit to a position with a Select Committee investigating the appalling industrial strife at a munitions factory, and that brings him to Canberra and the highly charged life of the Federal Parliament, where he meets another strong and attractive woman. The war in Vietnam is now drawing Australia into its chaos, and Hogarth sees something of the intrigues and machinations that occur when high policy is being decided.

The competing demands of family, marriage, politics and principle are the themes of this most readable novel, available at $24.95 RRP ($29.95 including P&P).