Professor Tim Rowse's biography of Nugget Coombs (2002) has been described as a 'fine, intellectual biography'. As he notes in his acknowledgements, Tim set out to write about the public life, 'Coombs' deposited papers did not include items that reveal what he considered to be his private life... my consent to Coombs' public/private boundary restrained me from exploring that theme very far. The resulting book is more impersonal than most readers of biographies would wish'. Tim will discuss the writing of a public life.