Is hopeful political fiction possible in Australia?
After working inside the Canberra bubble for over 25 years, Simone Abbot writes with heart, humour and hope about the people within the politics:
the stories they believe
the lies they tell themselves
the causes they would die for.
While converting Australian politics into fiction, Simone has been training her eyes to see all the improbable things in Parliament House because ‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.’
Life isn’t just an economic equation. Not everything valuable can be measured in GDP. Hope can come from the most improbable of places.
Simone’s debut novel, to be released in 2026, features the people within the politics, the communities and the lands they represent, and the improbable threads of hope that bind.
“Politics. Community. Hope.”
The life more ordinary… or more hopeful
“Live life as though everything is rigged in your favour.”
Simone Abbot’s journey has been rather wonderful in its ordinariness.
Simone was born in the volcanic region of Rabaul, on the archipelago of New Britain in pre-independent Papua New Guinea. Arriving in Australia in 1970, she grew up a 1980’s ‘Westie’ in beachside Adelaide.
After completing degrees in Arts and Law at the University of Adelaide, she joined the Commonwealth public service in 1995, moving to Canberra. Simone ran the gamut of public service: working in departments, for regulators and also a not-for-profit supporting the public sector. She evolved from lawyer to policy-maker (with a stint in Parliament House) to design thinker to program director to author.
In 2023, Simone finished working full-time after experiencing symptoms she dismissed as ‘life’. With hindsight, she now recognises these as the gifts of peri-menopause, but at the time she requested an MRI to test for dementia.
This timeout turned out to be a gift, presenting space to experiment with what improves wellbeing – a concept of great interest to her former employer, the Treasury. Her short story, ‘Loneliness By Degrees’, was selected as the ACT winner for the Neighbours Every Day ‘Tell Us Your Story’ 2025 competition and records her transition through this period.
Simone writes while volunteering with organisations supporting writers, migrants and refugees. She’s a member of the ACT’s MARION and the Australian Society of Authors, and volunteers with Navitas Skilled Futures, Cafe Stepping Stone, the National Library and the Canberra Writers Festival (‘Disneyland for authors’).
Simone’s debut novel will be released in 2026, 25 years after the year of its 2001 setting, featuring settings in the ACT and SA. Yes, it’s taken 20 years, but it has re-written Simone as she’s re-written it. Turns out, it’s never too late to choose your own wellbeing.
Proving, rather improbably, that the ordinary life can be the hope-filled life.
Is Simone’s writing for you?
In the 1990s, Simone’s English lecturer told his students that the most intriguing essay he’d received analysed ‘Jane Eyre’ according to the four elements:
air - Jane Eyre Mr Rochester - earth
fire - Helen Byrnes St John Rivers - water
Simone never forgot this observation, and her stories about politics and community have absorbed an elemental quality, sitting at the crossroads of Politics Highway, Humour Avenue, Cosy Lane and Mystical Boulevard. Subscribe to Simone’s occasional newsletter on the next page to be among the first to know when Simone’s debut novel will be released.
You can also read Simone’s 2025 award-winning short story ‘Loneliness By Degrees’ here.
“Well done, this is great, I enjoyed it so much I immediately turned back to page 1 and started to re-read the first few chapters!”
“Your essay for Neighbours Every Day (for which I am an ambassador) was emotionally powerful and beautifully crafted. No wonder it was the winner!”
“Your story beautifully reflects our theme of Create, Share & Grow Belonging, capturing the spirit of connection and community that makes neighbourhoods stronger.”
Contact Simone
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“I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as chanticleer in the morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake my neighbors up.”