 My name is Ben Ball, I'm the publishing director of Penguin Australia and it's my very great pleasure to welcome you to the launch of Michael Fulhub's Ronde Vue with Destiny. It's a bit of a Ronde Vue with Destiny for me. I've known Michael since we were at school, an embarrassing long time ago. He was clearly a very smart young man on his way places then and it's lovely to see where he's ended up. When I read the proposal for this book I was delighted to see that it was as intelligent and well written and insightful as one had always expected a book from Michael to be. And of course he moves in circles that are far beyond those that we moved in at school. He sent me an email saying, I'm marvelous, I've got a quote from Dr Kay for the cover of the book. And I thought, why do you want a quote from Dr Karl Krusniewski for your book? But of course he meant Henry Kissinger. I think this is a wonderful book. I hope you'll have a chance to read it and see whether you think the same thing. I love the ambition of the project and the fact that an Australian writer is not afraid to take on the subject from overseas. We're very proud to be able to support him in that endeavor and try to bring that to as many readers as possible. So without further ado, it's not only our great pleasure to publish the book, it's our honor to welcome Senator Carter to launch it. Ladies and gentlemen, of all the stories about Roosevelt, the one I like most, because it says such things about American democracy, is the story of the night of the 1940 presidential election campaign. On that house of his above the Hudson River, really a big farmhouse. It's not a mansion. As one of their neighbors said on one occasion, the Roosevelt's live poor. It's not a fancy house. It's a big farmhouse with one nice addition on it. Roosevelt was very, very tense. There's a humanizing story. He was very tense. No success is pre-ordained. And he was going for a third term defying convention, a convention that existed from the time of George Washington, the first American president to aspire to a third term. He was being branded a dictator or would be dictator. And one rumor had reached him that even in New York, that bastion of democratic support, only the Jews were for him. All the other ethnic groups had deserted him. And he gave an order, it was the most sociable of human beings, he gave an order that everyone else was to be locked out of the room, including Eleanor, including his close advisor, Steve Earley. And he was so tense that observers noticed his shirt was drenched with sweat. And he sat by the radio. And America was passing judgment on him and the judgment was coming into that room in the Hyde Park house above the Hudson that November night. And so much hung on it. The future of the world, it could be said, was hanging on that electoral result. And the figures came in, they trailed in from all over the country. And before long, it was clear to him that he was enjoying another big endorsement. And the doors opened and it was a now familiar Roosevelt celebration. I've been in love with him and Eleanor all my life since I read James McGregor Burn's book on Roosevelt as a kid from the mobile library of Ranwick Council. And even seeing the movie Hyde Park on Hudson on one of my flights recently, I only confirm my attachment to these. I refer to them as, refer to them both, Franklin and Eleanor as soldiers of freedom. That's what they were. And I can't resist a book on the subject. And I opened this one to be struck by what a tremendous story it still was so often told and how beautifully it was told in this book. It's a tremendous story, a tremendous cast of characters produced and directed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the matchless impresario. Michael started with a brilliant and original concept to trace America's course through war, through the mission, the five of his special envoys to Europe in 1940 and 1941. He's given us a masterly analysis which brings us close to understanding the mind and the methods of President Roosevelt as close to understanding that is what we're likely to get because it was a very cluttered mind. Roosevelt said on one occasion, I never let my left hand know what my right is doing. And half a dozen people who were promised the vice presidency on his ticket in 1944, consciously lied to, calculatedly lied to, I can be a testimony of that. Conrad Black, one of his biographers said, he had a quote, this is very funny, he had quote, an insatiable vindictiveness, unquote. And he seemed to take a special relish in disappointing his closest friends. And I think there's a book to be written on how there were reserves of, reserves of business in this man. But that's another story and shouldn't distract us from this. When it comes to the Wells mission, Sumner Wells, Assistant Secretary of State being sent to Europe with very vague purposes, Michael points out, the Wells mission was serving various purposes. Roosevelt was denying that it was a peace mission to Europe. All the media reported it as a peace mission to Europe. There was a muddleheadedness about it. And Roosevelt in this, as in so many of his tasks, was purposefully muddleheaded, keeping the options open, not seeking to be tidy. Don't forget the New Deal itself was described as relentless improvisation, constant improvisation. He was a master improviser, a master impresario. He was the most president, most powerful president in history. I think it can be argued, but he was rebuffed by a Congress, a Congress in which there was a handsome democratic majority in both chambers. Even after his big 1936 reelection, Congress voted down his stacking of the Supreme Court. In 1935, the Congress implementing enthusiastically his New Deal, the Congress killed his bid to join the world court. There was a deep isolationism. The isolationism had an internal logic. It's long been my view that the trickery, the deceit of Woodrow Wilson's plan to engage America in World War I produced an entirely understandable backlash that the bluster and jingoism of Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson produced a backlash. And the American people did not want to be deceived again. Thus in that 1940 election campaign that had Roosevelt so nervous on election night, drenched in sweat. Don't forget, he was so nervous that in October, he stood at a lectern, and before the newsreel cameras, he'd said, talk about perfectly astute minds, talk about seven second grabs. He said, I have seen war and I detest war. I will not send your boys to any foreign war. It was a lie. He was working very hard to see that America could engage itself in the war. And of course it was a lie. Never seen war, never participated in war. He'd visited some battlefields after Armistice Day 1918, he'd never seen war. But it was brilliant theater. I have seen war and I detest war. That opening sentence establishing for the newsreel theater audience is his sincerity. Why is he taking this position? Because he's seen war and he detests war. And then going on to say simple, bold declaration. Five seconds, four seconds. I will not send your boys to any foreign war. He won re-election on that promise. All the time intending to break that commitment. And to do it as soon as he could. He was able to recover from that largely because of the opponent he had. Wendell Wilkie, who, a chapter devoted to Wendell Wilkie in this book, was a great asset for the cause of aiding Britain. Roosevelt had made clear earlier that he was taking a different line from Woodrow Wilson in World War I. When the war broke out in Poland, Roosevelt pointedly used different language from Roosevelt's in World War I. Roosevelt said, America's going to be neutral in every respect, even neutral in thought. Roosevelt, in contrast to Wilson, said in 1939, this nation will remain a neutral nation, but I cannot ask that every American remain neutral in thought as well. Even a neutral has the right to take account of facts. Even a neutral cannot be asked to close his mind or his conscience. In the two years covered in Michael's book, Roosevelt had to act under the constraints of almost immovable public opinion. Yes, 70 to 80% of the American public wanted Hitler to lose. But 70 to 80% of the American public did not want America to contribute to his loss. When Wendell Wilty became Roosevelt's envoy, the third of the envoys discussed in the book, he took to Churchill that wonderful, that unforgettable letter by Roosevelt. And Churchill fell on that letter like a ravening timber wolf falling on a lump of meat. He has to use it in several great speeches. The letter was addressed on the envelope to a certain naval person. The term Roosevelt used in addressing his friend in London. And the envelope was marked kindness of honorable Wendell Wilty in that old fashioned 19th century style being part of Roosevelt's charm. And the letter, the letter read, dear Churchill, Wendell Wilty will give you this. He is truly helping to keep politics out over here. He said, I think this verse applies to your people as it does to us. Say along no ship of state. Say along, O union strong and great. Humanity with all its fears, with all the hopes of future years is hanging breathless on thy fate. As ever yours, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Well, the master propagandist Winston Churchill took that and broadcasted to his people in at least two great speeches. The most breathtaking aspect of Michael's narrative is how far Roosevelt allowed and carried his envoys to run ahead of his declared public position. It was part of his game, part of his practiced elegant deceit, part of that constant probing and improvisation that was the Roosevelt style. And this is particularly so in the case of his most trusted and important envoy, Harry Hopkins. And what an honor it is to have four Hopkins' grandchildren with us tonight descended from that hero of democracy. You just throw your hands up so we can acknowledge you. Great to have you with us. Like Roosevelt himself, he overcame immense physical handicaps to serve his country. He was woefully sick when he went on these missions to London and to the Soviet Union. And he was constantly looking death in the face like Roosevelt himself. And he was always laughing at the imposter. One of Michael, one of the great features of this book is the detail, the journalistic detail in it. Here we have a scholarly writer in Michael who understands that telling where your characters sleep. I might say who they sleep with. And what they eat and where they got the ration food. Filling the book with these details brings the story compellingly alive. And there's so much of it here. The pen portraits, the cameos, the scenes. I'll give you one example. Michael's account of a dinner with Churchill during Hopkins' first mission in January 1941. This is a ditchley, not Chartwell, but a ditchley. They couldn't entertain at Chartwell because if it were a clear night, the Luftwaffe would identify Chartwell, the Roosevelt home. But ditchley, a borrowed mansion, was adequate compensation. Michael writes, like an actor called back to the stage by innovation, Churchill then, this is before the dinner. Long dinner. Then delivered a majestic monologue on the origins and course of the war to date. When he turned to the future, he described Britain's post-war goals in a way that seemed calculated to appeal to his liberal visitor, one that rhymed with Roosevelt's four freedom speech. We seek no treasure, Churchill promised. You can see him doing it with that outside cigar and a glass of whiskey. We seek no treasure. We seek no territorial gains. We seek only the right of man to be free. We seek his right to worship his God, to lead his life in his own way, secure from persecution. And then growing to this theme, Churchill says, as the humble laborer returns from his work when the day is done and sees the smoke curling upward from his cottage home in the serene evening sky, we wish him to know that no ratatatat, and here Churchill tapped on the table, of the secret police upon his door will disturb his leisure or interrupt his rest. We seek government with the consent of the people, man's freedom to say what he will, and when he thinks himself injured, to find himself equal in the eyes of the law. But war aims other than this, we have none. What will the president say to all this, he asks? He's just brilliantly echoed the four freedom speech and he's forgotten any goal about saving the British Empire, hanging on to India that's been relegated. But as Michael describes the scene, Hopkins, this little sick man, this social worker who'd managed so much of the New Deal program, someone Roosevelt could rely on more than anyone else. Hopkins is silent for almost a minute, and then he says, well, Mr. Prime Minister, I don't think the president will give a damn for all that. You see, we're only interested in seeing that goddamn son of a bitch Hitler get licked. And no wonder Churchill dubbed Hopkins Lord Root of the Matter. You could go to the essence of something and that's something Roosevelt, his boss, appreciated him. Hopkins' key mission was to volunteer to go to Moscow in July 1941, a trip that could have killed him, crossing the Arctic in an unheeded plane. And his reports to Roosevelt were decisive in extending lend-lease to the Soviet and shaping the relations between Stalin and Roosevelt throughout the war. Most of the experts gave the Soviet Union three months at best and Michael quotes the isolation of Senator Hiram Johnson. Did we ever sink so low before so to choose one cutthroat out of two? So he had a lot of opposition, but Roosevelt pulled it off. And Hopkins then insisted on being with Churchill across the Atlantic in the Prince of Wales for his first meeting with Roosevelt in September 1942. And Roosevelt was still cautious at this stage saying America could wage war but not declare it. He still had that isolationist Congress. And while they were there at that Atlantic Charter meeting in Placentia Bay, a shocking bit of news came through out of Washington. Roosevelt's legislation for the peacetime draft, the first peacetime draft in American history. He puts it to the Congress. He campaigns for it. Wendell Wilkie, his Republican opponent on the 1940 election campaigns for it with Republicans. It gets carried through the House of Representatives, but by a single vote. Now imagine it takes, as Roosevelt said, it takes one year to train an army. Imagine, imagine that at this time, at this time, in 1941, that had been defeated, that had gone down to defeat. Imagine how much longer it would have taken, how many more people would have died. Michael writes that the closeness of the vote had a decidingly chilling effect on the American and the British delegation on board these warships at this conference. Sorry, this is September 1940. September 1940, it was a sobering rejoinder to those who demanded that Roosevelt be speedier and less mindful of his opponents. In these circumstances, even with that big third term wind behind him, conscription could only get through the US Congress by one vote. And then that was because the speaker, Sam Rayburn, ignored objecting congressmen and just, you know, brought the gavel down to speed up the whole voting process. So this was only, this was perilously close to America's Day of Judgment at Pearl Harbor, of course. The whole point was provocation and Roosevelt was dedicated to provoking Hitler. He tried everything he could and the book gives a wonderful account of it. In the denunciation of Nazi Germany, which he put out all the time, goading Hitler, making Hitler think America was a signed up opponent, just waiting to get into the fight. And in his fireside speeches, in feeding the illusion that America, American help to Britain was even faster than it was. And Churchill throughout all this time never believed that for a moment that Britain alone could defeat Hitler. Everything rested on Roosevelt's strategy of provoking Hitler, of getting Hitler to declare war on the United States. Hitler, Roosevelt took the step of issuing a shoot on sight order to American vessels accompanying convoys across the Atlantic. But even then, after the USS Ruben James was sunk by German adversaries with the loss of over a hundred American soldiers, there was no shift in American public opinion. American public opinion did not move, it did not demand that the President declare war on Germany. In fact, after the sinking of that vessel, the loss of a hundred American soldiers, imagine how American opinion that they would react with the loss of a hundred American servicemen. Congress only repealed the last of the neutrality laws by 212 votes to 194. The resistance to any involvement in the war was so great that 56 Democrats voted with the opposition. So the crucial question posed by Michael's book is a central question for the 20th century. Could Roosevelt have brought the United States into the European war if Hitler had not declared war on the US three days after Pearl Harbor? Michael's subtitle for rendezvous with Destiny is how Franklin D. Roosevelt and five extraordinary men took America into the war and into the world. Is this justified given that America wasn't ready to enter the war until the Japanese attacked America and until Hitler of his own volition? Just days after the Pearl Harbor attack declared war on the US? Well, the answer really lies in the pages of the book and again in the constant provocation. Roosevelt and his envoys were provoking Hitler every inch of the way. They provoked him so dedicatedly that when the Pearl Harbor attack came and before Hitler's declaration of war in America came, Churchill knew and he said, he slept the sleep of the thankful and the saved. Churchill said correctly on December the 11th when Hitler's declaration came, it certainly simplifies things. But it only did so and the declaration of war only came from Hitler because the ground had been so thoroughly prepared. The cause for war so thoroughly explained by Roosevelt and his envoys that nobody doubted that once the US was at war it would be a war to the bitter end against Germany as well as Japan. In fact, Hitler said it in a rare moment of truth and consciously Hitler paid the highest compliment to Roosevelt and his men. These trusted advisors, these envoys who paved the way. He paid the highest compliment to Roosevelt, his methods and his measures because Hitler declaring war in front of the Reichstag said his reason for declaring war was quote, our patience is ended, unquote. Our patience with America is ended. The day Adolf Hitler lost patience with Franklin Roosevelt, of course, he lost the war. But Roosevelt's patience, let's honour him by recognising it as his deviousness, his principal deviousness, brought the US strong and above all united into the war in a way no other president could have achieved. This is the grand theme of Michael Fully Love's rendezvous with destiny. So I end as I began these reflections with Roosevelt as the soldier of freedom, the great soldier of freedom, but being prepared to move, never letting his left hand know what his right was doing, lying to people closest to him to achieve a glorious objective, aligning the forces and resources of America with the forces of freedom battling on their own in the Atlantic. It's a beautifully written book. It is really a driving narrative history with impeccable scholarship as well, how rare to get that combination. I congratulate Penguin for publishing it. Most of all, I congratulate them for the confidence that this, the confidence they've shown in this young Australian, that he could master so great a project, a subject that so many of them, so many scholars, so many writers have devoted themselves to. Penguin was very confident that Michael could do it. And those of us who watch Michael's career with affection and expectation, and for my part at least, want him to go further in other arenas, are delighted, but knowing all we know, not surprised that with this book he's entered the front rank of international writers in a single bound. Thank you. Thank you very much, Minister Carr. I'd like to invite the author himself to say a few words. Well, thank you very much, Bob. You did me a great honour, even before you said those very kind and generous things. You did me a great honour by reading the book and by launching the book. You're a great student of history. You're a politician who reads. You're a political leader with a hinterland and I'm a great admirer of yours. Ben Ball mentioned that the book has a blurb from Henry Kissinger. I have to say, Bob was very helpful in that. I hope you won't mind me revealing that. I gave the manuscript to Bob and he took Dr. Kissinger out for dinner in New York and when the great man was in the loo, I believe, Bob left the manuscript on Kissinger's chair with a note from me and a little while later I got a letter from Dr. Kissinger's office. So thank you very much, Bob, and thank you for coming tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, I wrote Rendezvous with Destiny for three reasons. First of all, I wanted to write about Franklin Roosevelt. I believe he is the greatest statesman of the 20th century. He saved American democracy from the Depression. He led the Allies to victory over the dictators. He won four consecutive presidential elections and he did all this with a broken body. And of course, he was a seductive and effervescent figure and as Bob knows, Winston Churchill once said that meeting Roosevelt for the first time was like opening your first bottle of champagne. And when you write a book about somebody for as many years as I've been writing about this book, you need to like them. You share, you're with them at breakfast, lunch and dinner. So you need to have someone who has that spark. Secondly, I believe that the period between the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 and US entry in December 1941 was the turning point of the century. First of all, because the coalition of forces comprising the United States, the Soviet Union and the British Empire came together in that period, the coalition that would ultimately destroy the Hitler and the Japanese Empire. And secondly, it was this period that saw the transformation of America from a nervous isolationist middle power into the global leader it became that saw the start of the American century in which we're still living. And finally, I wanted to write the kind of history that I like to read. And that is one that is populated by individuals with big personalities, with great strengths and weaknesses. Some Newells, the Chile-Patrician diplomat who was eventually railroaded out of the State Department for making homosexual advances to African-American railroad porters on the president's train. Probably still not advisable in US politics, Bob. While Bill Donovan, the Republican adventurer and future spy master whose statue stands in the foyer of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, Harry Hopkins, the frail new dealer, Wendell Wilkie, the broad-minded, broad-shouldered Republican candidate for president in 1940, and Avril Harriman, handsome railroad air and banker who ran Lend Lease from London and still found time to romance Churchill's daughter-in-law, Pamela. Of these five characters, I must admit that Harry Hopkins is my favorite, the son of a saddle maker from Sioux City, Iowa, a great man and a great character. I enjoyed his informality, his democratic approach to life. Harry liked the ponies. He was like a great old Sydney character. He sympathized with the underdog but he ran with the thoroughbreds. His easy manner was like a gust of air conditioning on a humid Washington day. There's one story to me that captures Hopkins' sense of humor and that is Bob mentioned the trip that he made to London, to Moscow, I should say. So Germany has turned its guns eastward. They're making huge inroads against the Red Army. Everybody in Washington feels that the Soviet Union is close to collapse. Hopkins decides with FDR's orders to go from London to Moscow. He hops on a special train from London up to the northern tip of Scotland where he's gonna get on a Catalina flying boat to fly around the tip of Finland and Norway up to Archangel and then fly down to Moscow. And his aide on this trip is a young American flyer from the Midwest, age 21 and he doesn't really quite know why he's there but he's been detailed to accompany Hopkins. They get on the special train and Hopkins, who's a great lover of the nightlife and so on, goes to the lounge car and has a drink and he offers a drink to John Allison, the young flyer and he's a tea totaler and he refuses a drink. He says, no thanks, I'll have a lemon squash and Hopkins wasn't very impressed by this. And the steward comes around a second time and again he offers a drink to Allison. No, no, no sir, I'm a tea totaler. And a third time, and on the third time Hopkins gave him a quizzical half smile and he said, Allison, I don't care whether you drink or not but will you quit looking so damn superior? And they get on the Catalina and they fly to Archangel on this death-defying flight and the local Soviet admiral decides to insist on putting on a four-hour banquet for the visitors with the cold fish and the caviar and mostly the endless toasts of vodka and they're toasting Churchill and Stalin and Roosevelt and the seagulls and everything. And Allison, and I found this old videotape of Allison as an old man recounting this story of what it was like to be a 21-year-old with eyes like sauces. And he says, I was avoiding all these toasts but finally a big Soviet general with a white linen tunic and a mouthful of gold teeth marched up to Allison with a beaker full of vodka and he proposed a toast to the young American flyer who's come so far to defend the Russian motherland and Allison knew his time was up. He stood up, he thanked the general, he raised his own glass and he emptied it of vodka in one gulp and this was the first time that John Allison had tasted liquor and it brought tears to his eyes and he lost his balance, he sat down in his seat and he covered his face with a napkin and he sat there for a full minute and when the shock had worn off, he came out from under the napkin, he found Harry Hopkins looking at him from right across the table. Well, Allison said Hopkins, that shows a definite lack of character. In 1962, Harry's son David moved to Australia and as Bob said, I'm just touch beyond belief that four of Harry's grandchildren are here today, Joanne Hopkins, Jill Hopkins, Stephanie Hopkins Harris and finally Harry Hopkins. So thank you very much Hopkins for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen, the main purpose of my speech really is to say thank you because to misquote Churchill never before in the field of human publishing has so much been owed by one man to so many. I wrote my book here at the Lowey Institute, Australia's leading think tank. So I do wanna thank Frank Lowey who's not here this evening, Stephen Lowey who is and the rest of the board. Thank you to my colleagues here at the Institute who are simply the best at what they do. My colleagues on the staff as well as a platoon of interns helped me with research, they read the manuscript, they gave me wonkish advice about sea planes and naval battles. There are lots of plane spotters at a place like the Lowey Institute, ladies and gentlemen. There are too many individuals here to name but I must single out Joanne Botcher, our information manager. Joanne was indefatigable and indispensable and she made a very significant contribution to this book and I also do wanna thank my two deputies here at the Institute, Sue Yin and Anthony on whom I lean very heavily in my day job. Can I say thank you to my friends at Penguin, especially at Penguin Australia including my great ally Ben Ball. Ben is the best publisher in the country and I'm delighted to be a part of the Penguin stable and I'm particularly grateful that Penguin Australia has put such effort into the book. They decided not to just bring over the American edition but rather to publish an Australian edition with its own wonderful cover design and with its Australian spelling with Australian idiom restored. This is, I did have a few jasts with New York in preparing the US edition. This is a book about global history but I'm an Australian and of course that affected how I wrote the book. So when I was working in archives in Washington or London or Toronto, my eye was caught by Australian references whether it was Winston Churchill on board an Australian destroyer or an American traveling on board an RAAF Sunderland diarising that our flight crew is Australian and they're not afraid of anything. So it meant a lot to me to have an Australian edition of the book. So thank you to Ben, my editor Michael Nolan, my publicist Alicia Farry and the rest of the crew at Penguin and thank you in particular Ben for putting on the launch party this evening. I know that book launches have been squeezed in recent times along with publishing margins and let me just say on behalf of the audience we salute you. Ladies and gentlemen, there are lots of other distinguished guests. I won't name you all, I do wanna name just a couple. First of all, I'm a proud product of the New South Wales public education system and I'm delighted that my history teacher from high school, Judy King is here. Let me mention Owen Harries, a former advisor to the Fraser government and an intellectual entrepreneur in Washington. Along with my first boss Paul Keating, Owen has always encouraged me to address big central issues rather than small marginal ones. If you're going swimming, Owen said to me once, swim in the deep water, not in the shallows. Graeme Freudenberg is also here. Thank you Graeme for coming down from Brisbane, the Dean of Australian Speechwriters who of course wrote his own wonderful book on Winston Churchill and Australia. And of course Churchill is another irresistible figure who inhabits my pages. And the last story I'll tell you from the book came in January 1942, just a few weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Winston went with his underage to Washington to confer with his new ally, Franklin Roosevelt. And FDR put him up in the residence of the White House. So there he was upstairs with Harry Hopkins and Eleanor and Eleanor's lady friends and Franklin's secretaries all living upstairs. And one morning FDR had an idea and he wanted to tell Winston immediately. And so he wheeled himself into Winston's bedroom. And he hadn't accounted for Churchill's odd personal eccentricities. And Churchill had instructed that a bathtub be established in the middle of his bedroom. And there he was having a bath in the middle of the morning as was his want. And Roosevelt was very embarrassed and started to wheel himself out of the bedroom but Churchill refused. He said, no, Franklin, come back. And Winston stood up in the bathtub, naked, plump, pink and dripping and declared the Prime Minister of Great Britain has nothing to hide from the President of the United States. Let me, I'm almost finished. Let me offer very profound thanks to my mum, Patty Fully Love, a wise counsellor and my late father, Eric, who grew up in London during the Blitz. Thank you also to my brother Christian who is here tonight with mum. I've saved the best till last. Thank you to my beautiful wife, Gillian, my greatest discovery at Oxford and our three sons, Patrick, Thomas and Alex who are all here this evening. I certainly felt Gillian when I met you that it was a rendezvous with destiny. I've been working on this book for as long as we've known each other essentially. So I apologize for that. Thank you for the support you've given and the book is dedicated to you, Gillian and to our three little special envoys. Ladies and gentlemen, children always provide the best perspective. And a few weeks ago we received the box of presentation copies of the book from Penguin. And it has been a long road to this point. So this was a big moment and the whole family gathered in the lounge room to open the box. I got out my scissors and I carefully slid open the top and opened up the box and my wonderful son, Thomas, looked down and looked up at me and said, wow, foam. Ladies and gentlemen, there was more than packing foam in that box. There were books, but there was also a lot of research and thousands of hours of work and a great amount of love and effort from dozens of people, many of whom are here this evening. So thank you all very much for helping me to fill that box.