Encapsulating Turnbull's attitude to his party, he writes that the Coalition "did not deserve to win" the 2019 election.

In keeping with political practice before and after Turnbull became leader, the book's publicity campaign was disrupted by a malicious leak.

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have possessed copies for three weeks, and will publish detailed accounts in this weekend's Good Weekend. Paranoid the manuscript would get out, Turnbull's publisher imposed wide-ranging and onerous non-disclosure agreements.

Ideological enemies

On Wednesday, former colleagues were somehow able to get a partial or full copy to Turnbull's ideological enemies at The Australian.

The paper gleefully revealed fascinating details the following day, including that Turnbull negotiated foundation funding for Guardian Australia from Graeme Wood, the left-wing founder of the Wotif.com hotel bookings website.

The creation of Guardian Australia was an important event in the relationship between the Australian media and politics. With its slick presentation, evocative writing and deep coverage, the popular British outlet subjected the Coalition to greater, hostile scrutiny, pulled the Labor Party to the left and gave the Greens a sophisticated platform for their causes. It quickly became a formidable force.

For a sitting Liberal prime minister to bring into existence a media outlet dedicated to his government's removal is unusual. Bragging about it is unconventional.


'Why would you champion our opposition?'

Veterans of the Turnbull-Tony Abbott wars were reluctant to get into a fight with a man who appears to believe he has nothing to lose. One former party leader said: "I really don't want to comment on a self-serving largely fictitious work that probably should be allowed to disappear without trace."

But anti-Turnbull Liberals, some of whom have been prosecuted by the Guardian, welcomed Turnbull's candour about his involvement with the paper, which they see as vindication for the guerilla campaign to remove him – an event the erudite Turnbull must know he inaccurately describes as a coup.

Senator Eric Abetz: "It sort of confirms the worst fears of many of us in the Liberal Party that he wasn’t one of us." Alex Ellinghausen

"It sort of confirms the worst fears of many of us in the Liberal Party that he wasn’t one of us," Tasmanian senator Eric Abetz said. "Why would you champion our opposition?"

Within cabinet, there is a perception that Turnbull is trying to destabilise the government by stoking tensions between Finance Minister Mathias Cormann and Prime Minister Scott Morrison, whom he accuses of leaking tax-reform options when Turnbull's treasurer.

Those leaks have been written about before, including in my last book, The Surprise Party, and were to test public support for tax changes, not to damage Turnbull's authority.

Turnbull's decision to frame Morrison as a leaker, when there is circumstantial and anecdotal evidence that he actively undermined predecessor Tony Abbott, suggests that Turnbull is indifferent to the opinions of others, no matter how powerful.


A Labor man?

The Liberal Party's conservative wing, which still venerates Abbott, has long argued that Turnbull was a centre-leftist imposter and opportunist. A Bigger Life, they say, is proof he was a Manchurian Candidate.

Turnbull's last press conference as prime minister, on Friday, August 24, 2018. Alex Ellinghausen

"The Labor Party were too institutionally strong to have him," one federal minister said. "They are so tribal. That’s their great strength. We're a party of individuals. He was fortunate the NSW left [of the Liberal Party] had enough influence to make him PM."

Other Liberal MPs who worked with and for Turnbull have a more personal take. They complain about charisma without loyalty – a trait important for successful leadership of any organisation, let alone a nation.

In 2017, I interviewed Turnbull in front of 400 members of a university alumni club in Sydney. Interesting, intelligent, generous, he mesmerised the room.

Afterwards, Turnbull patiently smiled for everyone who wanted a photo, although confessed he preferred conversation to selfies, even with strangers.

If you didn't work with him, Turnbull was a difficult man not to admire, which may be why about 500,000 people switched their allegiance to the Coalition when he became prime minister.


As Australians watched the compromises he made to stay in power – including dropping the National Energy Guarantee, which even had Labor Party support – they came to see Turnbull as another transactional politician, which is why there was little political damage to the Coalition when he was removed.

Former colleagues don't doubt Turnbull's book will sell well. He always was a natural performer, and personal criticism is entertaining.

But they see it as a depressing end to a relationship with a party that took a slightly tarnished Goldman Sachs partner and turned him into an international political celebrity.

As one cabinet minister said: "Is anyone going to like the guy after this?"