A Room Made of Leaves

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So the Dharug people certainly form a part of the intimate circles that you draw and I use the word intimate in a very positive sense. Why was it important to you to depict the humour and the goodwill that was involved in those relationships in those early colonial relations as well as the violence and the dispossession? Kate Grenville’s return to the territory of The Secret River is historical fiction turned inside out, a stunning sleight of hand by one of our most original writers. This is a moving account of the brutal collision between two cultures; but it is the vivid evocation of the harshly beautiful landscape that is the novel's outstanding achievement' Australian history, like most histories, is a bit light-on when it comes to women, because they left so little behind. Even when they were educated enough to write letters or journals, those writings are bland, sedate things, suitable to be shared in any genteel parlour. Women at that time had no choice but to be bland. Without any power over any aspect of their lives, they were obliged to go along with a social and legal system that equated them with children. They might have talked together about what they felt about that destiny, but none of them could risk putting it in writing.

So before I do anything else I just want to congratulate you on creating such a beautiful book. I gave it to my mum and she loved it as well. Also the shadow of land theft still is cast long and is continuing to be long overdue for a resolution.

The Sydney Morning Herald

Australian history, like most histories, is a bit light-on when it comes to women, because they left so little behind. Even when they were educated enough to write letters or journals, those writings are bland, sedate things, suitable to be shared in any genteel parlour. Women at that time had no choice but to be bland. Without any power over any aspect of their lives, they were obliged to go along with a social and legal system that equated them with children. They might have talked together about what they felt about that destiny, but none of them could risk putting it in writing.

No, I screamed, seeing the box on the trestles in the parlour, but how can he breathe, get him out! If you’ve been joining in with our #ReadingWomen challenge, you’ll have read Kate Grenville’s incredible Women’s Prize for Fiction winner The Idea of Perfection, and you’ll be as excited as we are about Kate’s brand new novel. A Room Made of Leaves publishes this week, and here’s Kate herself on the inspirations and research that went into her beguiling new book.When baby sister Grace died I was five years old, too young to know the word. Dead. I barely understood what a sister was, still hoping this new creature in the house, this squalling red bully, was only temporary. A wonderfully imagined, and possibly cheeky, interpretation of Australian Colonial history. Once again, Kate has created an engaging set of characters to tell an interesting story that just could possibly be true ?? :-) C: I’m an historian and one of the things that I know is hardest for an historian are women’s lives in particular, is working out what they think and they feel, their subjectivity for the reasons that you’ve said, because any kind of public writing, journals, diaries, letters, they know that actually they are, unlike today, they’re going to be public items, they’re going to be read around hearths in the village, passed around so as you’ve suggested there’s a kind of official version of themselves that they’re allowed to give.