His latest book and first novel, Challenge, examines problems associated with the dysfunctional and transparent lives politicians lead through the protagonist Daniel Slattery, who Daley describes as a "cross between Mark Latham and Holden Caulfield".

"He's a misogynist, idealist, class warrior and economic rationalist, but he's principled," says Daley. "He cares about minorities including indigenous Australians and the poor. He has a fascination and old-fashioned respect for women, lives his political life as an allegory of sorts and likes to use his stories to illustrate how others less fortunate want to live their life. But he's a very angry man too."

Daley has won awards for his coverage of national and foreign affairs, mainly for Fairfax newspapers and The Bulletin, before joining The Guardian two years ago with his wife Lenore Taylor, who is the political editor.

Given everything he has seen over the years, Daley cannot fathom why anyone would consider a career in politics.

"I just can't think of another profession where there is so much pressure," he says. "People call each other liars all the time and all sorts of things. In another workplace that would be considered workplace harassment.

"It's just incredible ingredients that make great human drama and I really wanted to explore that."

The idea for the novel developed from a short story Daley published in The Bulletin in 2008, which received a lot of positive feedback from readers and attracted the interest of publishers. Writing the novel took six or seven years, between his journalism and working on several non-fiction books, including the bestseller Beersheba: A Journey Through Australia's Forgotten War and Canberra, one of a series on Australian capital cities.

"A couple of publishers said, 'Look, this is a space no one is really operating in seriously, in terms of doing literary-style fiction'," says Daley. "So I thought, let's do it. It felt like a natural development from what I had been doing, which was writing narrative non-fiction.

"The hardest part was finding a character who wasn't odious but alluring. I wanted someone who was intriguing, who was clearly flawed but you could empathise with. Lots of people said they didn't like him [Daniel] but ended up rooting for him. Once I found out what he was and found out what voice I wanted to use, I was set."

It makes you wonder if a character like Daniel, who is so candid and straightforward in his opinions and values, would survive in the real world of modern politics, often characterised by makeshift promises and PR-filtered one-liners.

Daley comes from a family that was damaged by politics; his parents' marriage was hurt by the ALP split in 1955 and in Canberra he recalls their bickering over his father's fawning admiration for Gough Whitlam.

He understands the tumultuous nature of politics and believes it's even more difficult nowadays, given the proliferation of social media and a 24-hour news cycle, to be a political figure in the limelight. With this environment in mind, he relished creating an extroverted 50-year-old who has to battle for the moral high ground.

"I do think it is worse now, because the nature of politics has changed," Daley says. "To me having watched politics up close and personal for a number of years, I felt that it was a great stage for human drama and emotion.

"Politics tests people in quite a unique way. I think it tests them physically because they are away from home and loved ones but it also tests them enormously emotionally.

"I've created characters who aren't based on anyone, or anyone who has worked in politics, and I had a lot of fun doing that. I loved this guy and when I was writing, I came away from the keyboard pretty drained. It took a lot out of me."

Challenge by Paul Daley is published by MUP, $29.99.