Media: BOOK - paperback, 344 pages
Author: P. Payton
Year: 2021
ISBN: 9781743058534
Other: b&w & colour photos, appendix, index
Publisher: Wakefield Press

In this highly readable and revelatory account of the Governors of South Australia, leading historian Philip Payton charts the evolution of the vice-regal role from foundation in 1836 to the present day, setting the development of this distinguished office against the backdrop of the State's often dramatic history. He tells the story of Government House and other Vice-regal residences, notably Marble Hill which was all but destroyed on 'Black Sunday' in January 1955, and provides biographical sketches of each of the State's thirty-five Governors to date (of whom only two were women). 

Rich in anecdote and detail, Professor Payton's lively history illuminates the careers of each of these Governors, probing their personalities, revealing their foibles, passions and achievements, just occasionally with a whiff of scandal. Governors' wives, and sometimes other family members too, are no less interesting, and several have made lasting contributions to their adopted State, as Philip Payton demonstrates in this comprehensive and absorbing book.

Contents:
Foreword
1. Portrait of an Office and a House
2. Foundation
3. Responsible Government
4. Federation
5. The Great War and Beyond
6. Depression, War and a New Elizabethan Age
7. Dunstan Decades
8. Another Dunstan, a New Millennium
9. Afterword
Notes and References
Appendix: Governors of South Australia
List of Illustrations
Acknowledements
Index