Revealing, penetrating and explosive, this is the real story of the downfall of John Howard and the rise of Kevin Rudd.

On 24 November 2007 Australia resoundingly changed government. If you think you know what really happened during that tumultuous year behind the closed doors of the Liberal Party, in the back rooms of the ACTU and deep in the campaign war room of the Labor Party, think again.

2007 was a year to remember in Australian politics. It saw the dramatic fall of John Howard and the unexpected rise of Kevin Rudd. It saw the Liberal Party buckle under the inertia of incumbency and the Labor Party find new discipline and energy. It also saw the union movement at the centre of one of the most effective and powerful political campaign the country has ever seen.

With unprecedented access to the key players and countless hours of confidential interviews, Peter Hartcher reveals how Kevin Rudd secretly forged his alliance with Julia Gillard to topple Kim Beazley. He exposes the way Labor's factions intimidated Rudd. He lays bare the raging, unending struggle between John Howard and Peter Costello for control of the national budget. And he explains why Peter Costello believes Howard's defeat was the greatest humiliation of any prime minister in Australia's history.

To the Bitter End is a penetrating, riveting and above all revealing exploration of a year when the political stakes had never been higher.