Paul Keating rose to the most demanding office in the land propelled by a fearsome reputation as the Federal Parliament's most devastating wordsmith and, on occasions, its most soaring orator.
Yet a new book claims Australia's 24th prime minister struggled with a learning difficulty as a child and privately carried a problem with comprehending the printed word through later life.
This caused him to read slowly, sometimes with the aid of a ruler in order to absorb the meaning.
Despite his love of history, and his fondness for the biographic form in particular, Mr Keating has never published a memoir, and did not cooperate in any way with the Paul Keating: The Biography by historian David Day.
Neither has Mr Keating spoken publicly before about the alleged affliction, according to Dr Day, who said while it was never diagnosed as a child, is likely to have been dyslexia.
"It sort of explains I think, his success, which I think, was his mastery of spoken language as well as his difficulty in stumbling over speeches that he had to give when they were written by others," Dr Day said.
In the book, which is featured in Saturday's Good Weekend magazine, Mr Day refers to "Keating's verbal dexterity" as "one of his greatest assets as a politician".
"He could convince sceptical voters with his explanations of complex ideas. And despite the paucity of his formal education, he could hold audiences in his thrall. Yet he could only read with difficulty. Had he been tested, it is likely that he would have been found to be afflicted with dyslexia. On one hand, this made his success in public life even more impressive. But it also may help explain why he was so successful as a political communicator," he wrote.
Other political leaders said to have been dyslexic include former US president Woodrow Wilson and British wartime prime minister Winston Churchill, although that has been contested by historians.
Mr Keating, who rose to the prime ministership after replacing Bob Hawke in 1991, is the last Australian prime minister not to have been to university – notwithstanding that he entered Federal Parliament at the age of just 25 and was already intent on rising all the way to the top.
He is regarded as among the most gifted persuaders in Australian political history, famous for his ability to convince voters of complex policy options, and for his withering capacity to eviscerate opponents' arguments.
The biography trawls through the young Keating's life in suburban Sydney, his rise through Labor politics, his troubled relationship with Mr Hawke under whom he served as a tough reforming treasurer, and the breakdown of his marriage in 1998 after leaving The Lodge.
During his time in office, Mr Keating was an economic reformer but championed a wide range of causes such as the republic, integration with Asia, the arts, and Indigenous land rights.
