Enid Lyons – Leading Lady to a Nation by Anne Henderson

Enid Lyons – Leading Lady to a Nation by Anne Henderson

Jeparit Press

ISBN 9781925826050

Hardback, 386 Pages, $49.95

Published in 2018

This is the story of an extraordinary woman - mother of twelve, Prime Minister's wife, first woman member of the House of Representatives and the first woman in a Federal Cabinet, radio broadcaster, newspaper columnist, author of three books - Enid Lyons was for many years the best-known woman in Australia.

Anne Henderson takes us on an intriguing tour of the first half of 20th century Australia - a time when politics was more fluid yet with many of the problems we face today - political party dysfunction, the widening gap between rich and poor, rural and urban, economic recession and the role of women in public life.

In researching Enid Lyons' family background, Anne Henderson uncovers new and intriguing information about a 'family secret'.

"Henderson’s biography is sympathetic. Quite rightly it places Joe Lyons’ achievements in the context of his close and enduring marriage to Enid, a strong and formidable woman. They had 12 children; she herself would go on to sit in Cabinet as Vice President of the Executive Council in the first Menzies government after 1949. In the last year of his life Joe would say in a letter to Enid: ‘I’m always longing for the time when, if God spares us, we can be together in our own beautiful home forgetting all the problems of politics.’ They were the words of a man who found in his marriage the bedrock of his existence."
-- The Hon John Howard in The Spectator, reviewing Anne Henderson's Joseph Lyons – The People’s Prime Minister

"Anne Henderson’s biography of Enid Lyons is a revelation of a world that has passed into history and a woman whose place in history has been neglected.”
-- The Hon Malcolm Turnbull launching Enid Lyons - Leading Lady to A Nation in June 2008