'The Dressmaker' was inspired by Rosalie Ham's macabre country childhood | ABC Conversations Podcast

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.