Gareth Evans, Greg Combet, Bob Brown, Maxine McKew, Wayne Swan, Rob Oakeshott and Mark Latham have all released books in the past few months reflecting on their time in office or about how to improve the political process. 

Add to that biographies on Joe Hockey, Paul Keating, Tony Windsor and Kevin Rudd by journalists and academics.

Former prime ministers have been tapping furiously at the computer keyboard, with Julia Gillard releasing a much-publicised auto-biography this week and John Howard showcasing his research of the Menzies era.

Will all of them be best-sellers? With such a flooded market, it seems unlikely.

But some of the tomes have provided a first-hand insight into the strange navel-gazing vortex that Canberra has been sucked into during the past decade.

Without picking favourites, Gillard’s autobiography is likely to be the most successful, given it’s been only a year since Australia’s first female prime minister was swept from office.

Gillard’s interview with veteran journalist Ray Martin this week was illuminating. 

She detailed her regret over ousting Kim Beazley as opposition leader in 2006, the necessity of removing Rudd as prime minister four years later and satisfaction over her disability care and education funding reforms.

Howard’s book examines his political hero Menzies, the only person who served longer than him as prime minister. Paul Keating described the Menzies era as the “Rip Van Winkle years” — a period were Australia slumbered. Howard argues the opposite, suggesting that Menzies avoided the nationalisation of industry that did untold damage to the UK’s post-war recovery.

He also champions Menzies’ achievements in university education and making the first trade connections to Japan and south-east Asia.

The best political books are those that provide a new perspective from those who were closest to the action. 

As any publisher knows, the rest usually end up in the discount book store $5 bin.