Ross Fitzgerald is a writer, broadcaster, historian and political commentator. He writes a regular column for The Australian and The Spectator Australia, reviews for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Weekend Australian and regularly appears on ABC Radio, ABCTV, and on Channel 7. He is currently a member of the New South Wales State Parole Authority; the New South Wales Heritage Council; the Administrative Decisions Tribunal; and the NSW Government Expert Advisory Group on Drugs and Alcohol. Emeritus Professor in History and Politics at Griffith University and part-time Professorial Fellow at the Australian Catholic University, Ross Fitzgerald has published thirty-two books, including Under the Influence: Alcohol in Australia (2009), Made in Queensland: A New History (2009), coedited Growing Old (Dis) Gracefully: 35 Australians Reflect on Life over 50 (2008), The Federation Mirror: Queensland 1901-2001 (2002), Seven Days to Remember: The World's First Labour Government (1999), and Red Ted: The Life of E.G. Theodore (1994), which was short-listed for the NSW Premier's Prize and for the National Biography Award. He is married to Lyndal Moor with whom he has a daughter, Emily.

Preface; 1 Life/Death/Insanity; 2 Suicide/Murder; 3 Shock; 4 Damaged and Desperate/ Slowly the Poison; 5 Sydney Town; 6 'Adequacy, Not Perfection'; 7 Silver Trays; 8 Raffles. Spies and Brissy; 9 Birth and Genesis/Opposition and Repression; 10 Spiritual Experience and Anarchism in Practice; 11 Bears and Lions and Peter Beattie; 12 Father as Hero; 13 Waste, Regret, and into Action; 14 The A.A. Professor; 15 The Switch; 16 Under the Influence; 17 A Power Greater than Myself; 18 Do Not Be Discouraged; Endnotes; The Twelve Suggested Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous; The Serenity Prayer; How to Contact AA; Further Reading.