History is always written by the winners and about the winners. But what about the poor souls lurking in the shadows of history, the ones who were just as remarkable but perhaps didn't stick their chests out as they crossed the line? In Second Best, Australia's foremost historian and comedian Ben Pobjie celebrates the nobility and altogether more fascinating stories of the silver-medal getters. What drove them on their incredible feats, why did they just miss out, and how did they cope with the oblivion of finishing second?
From the Second Fleet, the second man on the moon and Australia's second prime minister whose name we consistently forget, Second Best shines a light on those plucky men and women who, through no fault of their own - or at least only a little bit of fault of their own - didn't quite get there before everyone else, but did get there before almost everyone else.
From Charles Kingsford Smith to Joan Sutherland, Rupert Murdoch to Mary MacKillop, Ben Pobjie takes an intimate look at the Australians who helped make our nation great - as well as the ones who stopped us from being as great as we could have been, but who have ended up with their own Wikipedia pages anyway...
Australia is a proud country full of proud people, but exactly what are we proud of? Comedian and history buff Ben Pobjie delves deep into Australia's past and has a good old rummage amongst the nation's personal effects. With wit, perspicacity and a healthily elastic attitude to historical accuracy, the great saga of Australia is unravelled like an old woolly jumper. For anyone who snoozed through history class at school, this is the book to get you all caught up.
