HEATHER ROSE

The Tasmanian author of eight novels finally publishes the memoir she has been putting off

What prompted you to delve into your past rather than turn to writing another novel? I had been trying to avoid completing the memoir for years. When Covid put a research trip for the next novel on hold, I surrendered to the memoir.

Is there a book that made you love writing?

Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man & The Sea. I read it when I was just six years old. I realised that books didn’t just take you places, they made you feel things. I decided I wanted to write stories like that.

What’s the best book you’ve read?

Oh, so hard! Maybe Middlemarch by George Eliot or The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy. Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins or The Lord of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien or The

Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert. My life has been enriched by innumerable beautiful, inspiring and unforgettable books.

A book that had a pivotal impact on your life?

I read Peter Carey’s The Fat Man in History when I was 16. I realised that to be an Australian writer, I didn’t have to write about gum trees or convicts.

The book you couldn’t finish?

Moby Dick. But I will one day!

A book you wish you had read but haven’t got to?

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.

Your earliest reading memory? Sitting beside my mum as she read

Seven Little Postmen to me while breastfeeding my new baby sister.

The book you are most proud to have written?

The memoir is my ninth book. When I look at it amongst the others, I’m proud to have come so far as a writer.

How do you read books? I love hardbacks, paperbacks and audiobooks.

Your favourite place to read? Curled up in the sun on the back deck with my black cat nearby.

What book do you re-read? Anna Karenina (Tolstoy), Orlando (Woolf), Jitterbug Perfume (Robbins), A Brief History of Time (Hawkings), The Power of Now (Tolle), and Heart Minded (Blondin).

What books are on your bedside table? Tilt by Chris Hammer, Bohemian Negligence – Bertie Blackman, The Sun Walks Down – Fiona MacFarlane, Tongerlongeter – Henry Reynolds and Nicholas Clements.

What are you writing next?

A novel set in the 1800s based on the myths in my family.

Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here, by Heather Rose: Allen&Unwin, $33