With book number 10 under his belt, former Labor leader Mark Latham could be forgiven for running out of things to say.
But it was quite the opposite at the launch of his latest tome, Outsiders I Won't Be Silenced, at a five-star luxury hotel in Sydney on Tuesday when he lashed out at what he called a new era of identity politics that threatens democracy and free speech.
Latham says Australians are alarmed by the level of political correctness which he says is driving the nation apart and leading to people being promoted on the basis of their gender or race rather than merit.
He bemoaned the emergence of the "language police", saying he had documents referring to how a Unitingcare Life Assist LGBT staff group could no longer refer to clients' relatives as their sons, daughters, wives or husbands as they had to "degender" their language.
He says those on the centre left of politics are to blame, likening them to "medieval gravediggers" who want to drag Australians back in time.
"The whole system from top to bottom has lost its ballast, its reason, its judgment about these issues," Latham told the crowd of 60 at his book launch.
"In the end they will lose. These mongrels won't win I can tell you."
After leading federal Labor to defeat in the 2004 election, Latham has courted controversy on a range of social issues.
He was sacked as commentator by Sky News Australia this year amid a furore over comments he made about the sexuality of a Sydney schoolboy who appeared in a video for International Women's Day. He was also criticised for remarks about fellow Sky commentator Kristina Keneally and ABC radio host Wendy Harmer.
But he was among friends on Thursday as one of his most powerful allies, radio broadcaster Alan Jones, officially launching Outsiders, which is largely a collection of Latham's newspaper opinion columns published in the past year.
Jones described the book as "quintessentially Latham", saying it should be "in every classroom in the country".
Latham tackles education in his book and confided to the audience he had pulled his kids out of public schools in favour of private institutions "that actually have testing and rigour".
He also revealed what made him join senator David Leyonhjelm's Liberal Democrats a few months ago - his old party, the ALP, banned him from addressing Labor members at Smithfield RSL Club in Sydney's west.
"Where it gets to the point where you can't speak in your own region where you've lived for more than 50 years as a former Labor Party leader because you are banned by rainbow Labor it's time to look elsewhere," he said.
Latham also took a swipe at former Labor colleagues Kevin Rudd and Gareth Evans, both of whom have their own political memoirs coming out.
On Rudd's memoirs, Latham quipped: "His will come out in two volumes - it's a case of when Kevin talking about himself is never enough."
