Our first female prime minister Julia Gillard came to power suddenly in a coup that perplexed the nation. She hurried to an election and was chained to a hung parliament. She out-negotiated Tony Abbott and formed a minority government, but the deepest threat was from within: the man she beat for the top job would relentlessly undermine her for three torturous years.

In Gravity, award-winning journalist Mary Delahunty teases out the personal from the political and gives us an exclusive insider account. She reveals for the first time Gillard's reflections on why she struggled at the top, as well as the thoughts of other key players in this brutal saga. Delahunty had unparallelled access to the PM throughout her final year, and was the only journalist to speak to Gillard on that fatal June day. Gravity takes readers inside Gillard's private office to detail the drama - exposing the cost of defeat, and capturing just how fast power drains away.