We publish books that matter — narrative and literary nonfiction on important topics, and the best of local, international, and translated fiction.

Scribe is thrilled to share that Bulldozed by Niki Savva has won the 2023 Political Book of the Year Award. 

Award judges Laura Tingle, Barrie Cassidy and John Warhurst AO have shared their reflections:

‘Savva’s blunt and often eye-popping account of the Morrison Government has smashed the mould of contemporary writing on our country’s political contest, which is so often relegated to a rushed retelling of events, usually by the winners who get to shape the historical narrative, using multiple anonymous sources and hindsight.

What emerges is a portrait of politics as something beyond just partisan politics and ideology.

We see the driving factors behind crucial decisions that affect us all as often being no more than the outcome of human will, raw ambition, flaws and failings in all their splendour, and this portrait mostly comes directly through the words of those involved. There are no assertions of what unnamed players may have told Savva in her riveting account of the dying days of the Morrison Government.

Savva’s book reflects the wisdom of her judgements about politics and people formed over decades as a political reporter, and the quality of her skills as a wordsmith. Bulldozed is also the third instalment of her account of the federal Coalition which gives readers an unparalleled view of a very particular period in Australian politics.

While the book also documents the path to election victory of Anthony Albanese’s Labor Government, the book is at its most powerful in documenting the extraordinary inner workings of the Morrison Cabinet.

Journalists are often criticised for going to work for the ‘dark side’ as political staffers. But Savva’s trilogy of books demonstrates how the finest in her profession can both gain an unparalleled insight into how politics really works but emerge on the other side with their independence intact.’

Congratulations to Niki, and her publisher Henry Rosenbloom, on this significant recognition for the book.