Gordon Peake writes about places, people and the shenanigans that go on behind bureaucratic curtains.

His latest book Unsung Land, Aspiring Nation (2022) is a story of his journeys in Bougainville, a collection of islands in Papua New Guinea hoping to strike out as a country of its own. Travel writer Tom Bamforth has described the book as ‘an excellent piece of engaged travel writing. With first-hand observation and curiosity, Gordon has produced a deeply informed, compelling and evocative account of war, survival and nation-building in what may become the world’s newest country.’

Gordon’s critically acclaimed first book, Beloved Land: Stories, Struggles and Secrets from Timor-Leste (2014) was a memoir of his time living in the first new nation of the 21st century. The book was a winner of two Australian literary awards, judges described it as ‘“a compelling work merging the personal with the historical … surprising, sometimes confronting and very poignant.” The Sydney Morning Herald wrote that the book’s mixture of ‘forthrightness and warmth, and knowledge, makes this book not simply informative but in a quiet way exemplary.’

His essays have focussed on topics as diverse as the singular miseries of being a diplomatic spouse to how personal relationships constitute the secret fuel which make bureaucracies either work or not. His writing has been published in a wide range of outlets including Aeon, the Guardian and Island magazine. Gordon reviews books for the Canberra Times.

Gordon hosts the podcast State Craftiness which investigates what happens in the weeks, months and years after governments make splashy announcements. His previous podcast, Memorandum of Understanding looked at the people, policies and politics of international aid.

Gordon lives in Washington D.C with his wife Suzanne and their two children, Charles and Patrick.