Heather Rose is leading me to a very specific tree. We’re walking single file on a winding bit of bush track at the start of the Alum Cliffs walk, just south of Hobart. I’m huffing and Rose is puffing as we ascend through acacias and young gums, attempting to identify the sweet-smelling creeper in flower all around us. We settle on it likely being a very pretty weed.
It’s release day for Rose’s 10th book, A Great Act of Love, an epic novel crossing generations, continents and colonies from the French Revolution to Van Diemen’s Land. Rose explores local truth-telling and loss while fictionalising her own wild family stories.
