AUTHOR

Rosalie Ham has been a check-out chick, a barmaid and rousabout. Her first novel, THE DRESSMAKER (Duffy and Snellgrove, 2000), has received high praise for its representation of the best and worst of country life.

Although Rosalie grew up in a small country town, the novel doesn't reflect her own experience of the country. Rather, it draws on the themes of hypocrisy, malice and bigotry while "running through it all are the best elements of country life." As Rosalie says "suspicion, malice and prejudice are three of the things I find most annoying about humans, but it's rife amongst all of us. I hate the petty, nasty, tiny mind but at the same time it can be very observant - just not a particularly nice or accurate observation. In THE DRESSMAKER I'm attempting to show how destructive and ridiculous it can be."

Rosalie's follow-up novel is SUMMER AT MOUNT HOPE, about a young woman living on a small farm near Geelong in the 1890s who is pushed toward the world of men and money.

.Rosalie is available for presentations on the themes of THE DRESSMAKER, which has been chosen as a text for VCE Literature in 2006. As an accomplished writer she is also available for writing talks and workshops for secondary students and adults.

"Readers love THE DRESSMAKER's eccentric mix of pathos and black humour, potboiler plot and writerly insight, cruelty and compassion."

- The Age