Before writing her bestselling memoir The Waterlily, before her career as a poet, there was the girl from Tumby Bay ... 'the feel of the cold steel of her scissors clipping around my armpits felt dangerous and lovely. the cloth fell in slivers around my socks.' Before writing her bestselling memoir the Waterlily, before her career as a poet, there was the girl from tumby Bay ... the Dressmaker's Daughter is a candid and exquisitely crafted account of Kate Llewellyn's life, from her earliest days on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia through to her nursing training, her marriage, life in bohemian Adelaide in the Sixties and Seventies, her time as an art-gallery owner, and the beginning of her journey as a writer. With a poet's touch and with striking honesty, Kate Llewellyn reveals her darkest regrets and heart-warming triumphs. An insightful and elegant self-portrait of one of Australia's best-known and best-loved writers, the Dressmaker's Daughter is also an unforgettable and evocative account of a time when everything seemed possible.