How a macabre country childhood spawned a best-selling dressmaker’s tale

Author Rosalie Ham grew up in a country town three blocks long and three blocks wide. She paid close attention to the characters there, like the woman at the shops whose face was frozen into Munch’s scream. This eye for detail led to her first novel, which became a hit movie starring Kate Winslet.

Author, Rosalie Ham grew up in country NSW, in a town three streets wide and three streets long.

During a mouse plague, the rodents were so prolific that their droppings would appear at the bottom of the cereal packet, and the town's children — unsupervised — would chop the mice up with a downpipe in the farmyard shed.

When Rosalie was a child, her mum received a devastating diagnosis, and started an affair as a way to find herself before it was too late.

Watching her mother's life and extreme changes proved a formative experience, which led Rosalie to write her first novel, The Dressmaker.

The book was eventually made into a film starring Kate Winslet.

Rosalie's husband Ian had been a staunch support through her writing career, until he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and she became his carer.

This episode of Conversations covers a life story, family dynamics, mothers, parenting, reflection, loss, origin stories, grief, personal stories, The Dressmaker, Kate Winslet, Australian fiction, Liam Hemsway, carers, infidelity, cheating, divorce, coping strategies and Alzheimer's Disease.