PAUL KEATING has responded with trademark vitriol after reading extracts of Blanche d'Alpuget's biography of her husband, Bob Hawke.

Mr Keating, who served as treasurer to the then prime minister before ousting him in 1991, says he carried Mr Hawke for four of his eight years.

"The fact is, Bob, I was exceedingly kind to you for a very long time," he says in a letter to Mr Hawke published in The Australian.

"I knew the state you were in in 1984 ... I carried you through the whole 1984-1987 parliament, insisting you look like the prime minister, even if your staff – the Manchu Court I called them – were otherwise prepared to leave you in your emotional hole."