“A conga line of suckholes.” The words
don’t have the same elan as some of Paul Keating’s gibes, but have become inexorably
linked with the man who uttered them. And you read it here first. A Conga Line of
Suckholes will be the title of Iron Mark’s next book, due in October.

During his time
in politics Mark Latham “not only kept a diary of events, but also a collection
of quotations and anecdotes”, says Melbourne University Press. Now he’s packaged
them up as a Latham Dictionary of Quotations and MUP promises us “words of wisdom
and witticisms, insults and reflections from Ben Chifley to Barry Humphries,
Julius Caeser [sic] to John Faulkner, and including some of the author’s own
more memorable turns of phrase”.

To help us cope with the long wait until October, MUP will be bringing out the paperback edition of those Diaries in August – with an added scholarly appendix, the Ask Mark series of Q&As that were intiated by Crikey.

And if any Labor pols
would like to comment on their former leader, here are two quotes from Iron
Mark we’d like to suggest they use. There’s his description
of Tony Staley – “That deformed character” – or his line to one of the Chaser
lads – “F*cking idiot!”