Dear Prime Minister : letters to Robert Menzies, 1949-1966

Resource Information

The work Dear Prime Minister : letters to Robert Menzies, 1949-1966 represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Randwick City Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Dear Prime Minister : letters to Robert Menzies, 1949-1966

Title remainder

letters to Robert Menzies, 1949-1966

Statement of responsibility

Martyn Lyons

Creator

• trueLyons, Martyn

Author

• trueLyons, Martyn

Subject

• trueCorrespondence
• trueLetters
• Menzies, Robert, Sir, 1894-1978
• trueAustralia -- Politics and government -- 1945-1965
• Politicians -- Australia
• Prime ministers -- Australia -- Correspondence
• Menzies, Robert, Sir, 1894-1978 -- Correspondence
• trueAustralia -- Politics and government -- 1965-

Language

eng

Summary

"I am sir [sure] you will act as human bean", wrote one distressed pensioner to Prime Minister Robert Menzies in 1953, pleading for assistance. Robert Menzies received 22,000 letters during his record-breaking 1949-1966 second term. From war servicemen, widows and political leaders to school students and homespun philosophers. Ordinary citizens sent their congratulations and grievances and commented on speeches they had heard on radio. They lectured him, quoted Shakespeare and the Bible at him and sent advice on how to eliminate the rabbit problem. In Dear Prime Minister, Menzies' fabled 'Forgotten People' write back. Revealed here for the first time, the letters respond to the royal visit of 1954, Communism, Australia's British connection and the dire poverty of aged pensioners. For many writers, these were not post-war boom years, but a time of anxiety and conflict, punctuated by fears of war, another Great Depression, or a nuclear Armageddon. Dear Prime Minister is a fascinating insight into the concerns, assumptions and political beliefs of 1950s and 1960s Australians

Cataloging source

NJB

Dewey number

994.05

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Target audience

adult