HV 'Doc' Evatt has long been obscured by Menzies's broad shadow, as the Labor Opposition Leader through the prosperous and complacent 1950s. In this book, one of our finest writers and sharpest minds shows Evatt in his true light: the most brilliant Australian of his day. Inspiring, cosmopolitan and humane, Evatt was the forerunner of Keating and Kirby, believing that Australia could be more than quiet and comfortable - it could be an example to the world of a compassionate, just, progressive society. An acclaimed advocate, champion of modern art and state member for Balmain in the NSW Parliament, in 1930 Evatt became Australia's youngest ever High Court judge, a regular dissenter from this arch conservative body as he tried to make the law responsive to the rapidly-changing modern world. Haigh traces one case in particular - that of the Chester family, who sued Waverley Council for the trauma of their young son's drowning in an unfenced ditch. Evatt's legal...