Unspoken Q&A

Why did you write this story?

A political setting was an obvious fit, but the question was always what story would sit within that world. I toyed around with different ideas over the ten years, but it wasn’t until 2017, with the release of the First National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Report, that it came together. I was fascinated and horrified in equal measure. Soon after, I was chatting to my Dad and he told me about the impact he was seeing - local families in rural communities dealing with the fallout of ice addiction and the infiltration of outlaw motorcycle gangs into remote Tasmanian towns. I did some research and knew that was the story I wanted to tell.

So, that was my motivation to start writing Unspoken, but my motivation to finish the novel was quite different. It was cathartic - a way to bring closure to a twenty-year chapter of my life. The manuscript gave me space to reflect on my time in politics and what I thought was important to say. By the time I typed ‘the end’, I had 115,000 words - way too many for a publisher of a debut - so the task was reflecting on what was most important. That was a blessing, because it meant I couldn’t stray from a very compact story line and I had to clearly focus on what I couldn’t leave ‘unspoken’.

Tell us about your protagonist, political staffer Francis McGuire?

There are roughly 2,000 political staffers working for federal MPs and senators at any given time. Their job, when done well, is simple: be available, know your brief, support your boss and stay invisible. Staffers live in the back office. If it’s good news, their boss claims it. If it’s bad, it’s usually the staffers taking the call … and the initial hit.

That’s Francis McGuire. She’s competent, loyal and invisible. But it’s those traits that make her vulnerable to anyone in the system who knows how to exploit them. Unspoken follows what happens when the very qualities that make you good at your job become the thread that makes your world fall apart around you.

Explain the title Unspoken.

I played around with a few working titles before I landed on Unspoken. For a long time it was The Adviser - in keeping with John Grisham’s style (think The Firm, The Client, The Whistler). It wasn’t until I was nearing the end of writing the book that Unspoken popped into my head - in the middle of the night as these things do - and I knew it was perfect.

Unspoken reflects the control that exists within large institutions — politics of course, but not limited to it. It’s about what we choose not to say; what we’re afraid to challenge; the expectation that you will look the other way. It speaks to what is universally understood but never mentioned and the unspoken rules you follow to survive within the system. 

How close to the truth are the themes and stories in your book?

Unspoken deals with organised crime infiltrating local communities and there’s nothing ficticious about that. You only need to turn on the news to see the damage gangs and syndicates are inflicting across Australia, whether you live in the city or a small town. That part of the book sits uncomfortably close to reality.

After twenty years working in federal and state politics, I carry a lot of observations about how the system works, who holds the power and what happens to the people who don’t. I’ve simply told my truth about pressure, ambition, loyalty and silence. Unspoken isn’t about demonstrating how much I know about the inner workings of politics, or getting bogged down in jargon the reader won’t understand. When writing about this world, I identified aspects I thought would be interesting to the reader and tied that up in an easy-read page turner.

What do you hope readers take away from this book?

Unspoken is about the expectations and unspoken rules that shape behaviour in politics and beyond. It follows an introverted, embattled staffer who isn’t a classic thriller hero, but an ordinary woman drawn into events she never sought and barely understands. Through her eyes, the novel explores how people survive systems that rely on containment and silence and how hard it is to push back - if indeed, you have the capacity and support to do it.

Politics has taught me a lot about leadership, and mostly it bubbles to the surface far from the media spotlight. It’s found in people who see themselves as ordinary, often second-guessing their ability, yet still driven to do something extraordinary in their communities and beyond. Those quiet, selfless acts shaped this story and the characters who fill its pages. If a reader recognises themselves in that - whether I’ve met them or not - I hope they reflect on the difference their actions make.

What is your writing schedule?

I began this novel in 2014 with the naive thought, “How hard could it be?” I now know it’s much harder than you think!

Over many years I’d write in enthusiastic bursts, then work would take over and months would slip by. Each time I came back to the manuscript, I’d read the last section and think, “What was I thinking?” - partly because it wasn’t very good, and partly because I genuinely had no idea what I’d been trying to say.

Everything changed when I retired. Instead of fourteen-hour days trying to juggle the demands of my role, I finally had space to write. I treated it like a job and spent about eight hours a day on the manuscript - sometimes more, but only because I loved doing it. Writing without distraction was a privilege and every morning I’d walk into my office and say, “Okay Francis, what are you getting up to today?”

Who are your writing influences?

I’m not one of those authors who was an avid reader as a child and teenager. If I read something it was usually a poem - like Banjo Paterson and Pam Ayres. Short, easy and fun. But even though I didn’t read, I always did well in English and teachers would often comment that I could write a good story. It wasn’t until I was at uni that I started to read regularly. Should I be embarrassed to say that the catalyst was Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews and all the sequels? Anyway, it’s out there now! That opened the floodgates and I became an avid reader across varied genres.

Over my time working in politics, I read no fiction … well that depends on your interpretation of ‘fiction’ I suppose! Political material, 24/7. It wasn’t until I finished Unspoken in June 2025 that I began to lose myself in that wonderful world again.

If you backed me into a corner and made me choose a single favourite author, I’d pick Enid Blyton. Clean, accessible sentences. Easy to understand. Never pretentious. Beautifully crafted. Captivating. I still read her stories.

If you ask which writer has most influenced this novel, it’s John Grisham. When I started writing Unspoken, I wanted to be to political thrillers what Grisham is to legal thrillers. He’s the master of taking a complex system, stripping away the jargon and telling a gripping story that anyone can follow.

Now that I have finished writing Unspoken, I’ve got the luxury of time and I’m back to reading fiction again. I’ve recently finished and loved Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro, Normal People by Sally Rooney, Big Red Rock by David Owen and Lee Child’s first novel, The Killing Floor.