About the Author

Michael Gordon joined The Age as a 17-year-old cadet and has worked for the paper for more than two decades in roles ranging from surf writer and sports editor to national editor and deputy editor of The Sunday Age. He has also been New York correspondent for the Melbourne Herald and political editor of The Australian. A Walkley award winner, his books include A True Believer, Paul Keating; Reconciliation, A Journey; and Freeing Ali, the Human Face of the Pacific Solution. In March 2006, Michael Gordon won the 2005 Graham Perkin Award for Journalist of The Year for journalistic excellence for his report in April 2005 of the 'forgotten' 54 refugees detained on Nauru. In February 2007, Michael was appointed Saturday editor.