When Mark Latham walked out of the caucus room as Labor leader in December 2003, he took the Labor Party into one of the most tumultuous periods in its history. Bernard Lagan was there in the beginning and he was there at the end. This is his story of the rollercoaster ride that was the Latham year and of what went wrong for the man who was going to be the Labor Party's saviour.The day Mark Latham became leader of the Labor Party, the dynamics of federal parliamentary politics shifted up more than a few notches. A year later this loner would resign from the parliament a broken figure. What happed in those twelve months to turn the most dynamic performer in Australian politics into the sick and embattled man we all saw on our TV screens?Bernard Lagan burrows deep inside that dramatic year to uncover the gut wrenching personal dramas, the plots and the intrigues, and the loyalties betrayed. Written with all the energy and drama of a political thriller, Loner: Inside a Labor tragedy uncovers the bitter struggle and brutal realities of Labor's inner crisis.