Heather Rose — The award winning Australian author

Rippling with rich, textural prose, 'A Great Act of Love' thrums with secrets which reverberate through generations and across continents. It is a sensuous, captivating story of love and adventure, of new horizons, sweeping from the deepest corners of the world to the wildest territories of the heart.”

Lucy Steeds, bestselling author of the Women’s Prize longlisted 'The Artist'

Heather Rose is not a writer; she is a magician. Her magic power? Being able to transport readers back in time to faraway lands. In 'A Great Act of Love', the destination is 19th century Hobart, where a young British woman, Caroline, moves into a cottage Caroline next to an abandoned vineyard.”

The Australian Women's Weekly, November 2025

Sumptuous....This is a treat for historical fiction fans. ”

Publisher's Weekly - on 'A Great Act of Love'

Heather Rose is esteemed by those who award literary prizes but she has the distinction of also being adored by readers of popular fiction. 'A Great Act of Love' is her sixth adult novel but her first historical, and it cracks along with a masterly gusto.”

Sydney Morning Herald

Her writing has a vibrant energy, which intensifies and then calms like the widening flow of a river.”

Sydney Morning Herald - on 'Nothing Bad Ever happens Here'

Heartbreaking and beautiful, 'Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here' is a love story brimming with courage and joy against all odds, one that will bring wonder, light and comfort to all who read it.”

Better Reading

Rose’s lyrical melding … is masterful. Intriguing as the real-life events of the Lucan story are, Rose transforms it into something far more substantial.”

The Weekend Australian - on 'The Butterfly Man'

Rose has mastered the contemporary realist novel. Is there nothing she cannot do with her words and skilled imagination? No vignette or internal dialogue is here that doesn’t enhance the complex tale she is making.”

Helen Elliot, The Age - on 'Bruny'

This novel is an unusual and remarkable achievement, a meditation on the social, spiritual and artistic importance of seeing and being seen, and listening for voices from the present and past that may or may not be easy to hear.”

Stella Prize Judges 2016 - on 'The Museum of Modern Love'

Sorrento Writers Festival April 23 – 26

I am delighted to be joining so many brilliant writers at Sorrento Writers Festival 2026. These events sold out very quickly so my apologies for any disappointments – but if you hurry there’s still one event available – see below! Or the entire program is here at Sorrento Writers Festival. 1. Thursday April 23 : […]

Newcastle Writers Festival March 27 – 29

This weekend I’ll be at Newcastle Writers Festival! Saturday March 28th 10am I’ll be talking about The Writing Life with my two wonderful fellow writers – Hannah Kent (Always Home, Always Homesick, Burial Rights etc) and J.P.Pomare (The Gambler, Seventeen Years Later etc) guided by the one and only Kate Evans from ABC Arts. Tickets […]

A Great Act of Love – now published in the USA

A young woman with a mysterious past searches for her father—who has committed an unspeakable crime—in an exquisitely lush historical novel set among the champagne vines of 19th-century Australia. Van Diemen’s Land, 1839. A young woman of means arrives in Hobart, Australia, with a boy in her care. Leasing an old cottage next to an […]

Thank you everyone for the launch of ‘A Great Act of Love’ through October – tour now complete

Thank you to all the wonderful interviewers who shared the launch of A Great Act of Love with me through October. We began with Mel Kembrey in Hobart for the offical Tasmanian launch, then moved to Kate Evans in Sydney and Brisbane, Michaela Kalowski in Sydney, Jason Steger at Queenscliff, Sarah MacDonald at Avalon, Caro […]

Heather Rose is the award winning Australian author of nine novels and a celebrated memoir.

More about Heather

Books

One of Australia’s most imaginative and diverse writers of literature ...

See all books

A Great Act of Love – UK edition

'Like a fine vintage of champagne, this novel is complex, layered, and delicious.'

A Great Act of Love – now published in the USA

'Sumptuous...This is a treat for historical fiction fans.' Publishers Weekly

A Great Act of Love – Australian edition

Legacy, passion, reinvention ...and the making of champagne ...

Bruny – 2025 edition

How far would your government go?

The Museum of Modern Love – 2025 edition

‘Life beats you down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.’ Stella Adler

White Heart – 2025 edition

'A haunting blend of spirituality, landscape and grief' - The Sunday Times

The River Wife – 2025 edition

'Passionate and tantalising, elegiac and profound.' Canberra Times

The Butterfly Man – 2025 edition

We might live with secrets, but how to die with them? Crime fiction like no other.

Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here

'Funny, devastating, miraculous and delightful. This is an extraordinary life story, extraordinarily told.' Bri Lee

The Museum of Modern Love

“Art will wake you up. Art will break your heart. There will be glorious days. If you want eternity you must be fearless.”

Bruny

'More like a hand grenade than a book...'

The River Wife

'A story of belonging is always a story of losing.'

Heather Rose is not a writer; she is a magician. Her magic power? Being able to transport readers back in time to faraway lands. In 'A Great Act of Love', the destination is 19th century Hobart, where a young British woman, Caroline, moves into a cottage Caroline next to an abandoned vineyard.”

Sumptuous....This is a treat for historical fiction fans. ”

Heather Rose is esteemed by those who award literary prizes but she has the distinction of also being adored by readers of popular fiction. 'A Great Act of Love' is her sixth adult novel but her first historical, and it cracks along with a masterly gusto.”

Her writing has a vibrant energy, which intensifies and then calms like the widening flow of a river.”

Heartbreaking and beautiful, 'Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here' is a love story brimming with courage and joy against all odds, one that will bring wonder, light and comfort to all who read it.”

Rose’s lyrical melding … is masterful. Intriguing as the real-life events of the Lucan story are, Rose transforms it into something far more substantial.”

Rose has mastered the contemporary realist novel. Is there nothing she cannot do with her words and skilled imagination? No vignette or internal dialogue is here that doesn’t enhance the complex tale she is making.”

This novel is an unusual and remarkable achievement, a meditation on the social, spiritual and artistic importance of seeing and being seen, and listening for voices from the present and past that may or may not be easy to hear.”

News & Events

News & reviews

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Sorrento Writers Festival April 23 – 26

Newcastle Writers Festival March 27 – 29

A Great Act of Love – now published in the UK

A Great Act of Love – now published in the USA

Thank you everyone for the launch of ‘A Great Act of Love’ through October – tour now complete