A classic of Australian literature, The Education of Young Donald Trilogy combines Donald Horne's three autobiographies - The Education of Young Donald (1967), Confessions of a New Boy (1985) and Portrait of an Optimist (1988) - in one volume. Describing his formative years as he strays far from home, it tells how Donald moved among the social classes, strolled from one milieu to another, visited foreign lands, flirted between intellectual perspectives, had successes that were failures and failures that were successes and ends up, with an in increasing sense of exile.

With a keen intellect and a sharp wit, Horne portrays the rough and tumble world of journalism.