‘Tennis was the centrepiece almost by accident’

Liane Moriarty, the author of Apples Never Fall, says she was not as interested in tennis players who made it, as those who did not

Nicole Kidman’s character Masha Dmitrichenko, in the mini-series  Nine Perfect Strangers, started life as a small bald man called Gregory. Liane Moriarty (55), whose eponymous 2018 book, the lovely looking show created by David E Kelley is based on, says, “I had to use this name, Dmitrichenko, somewhere in the book. A woman bid for the rights to have her name used as a character in one of my books at a charity auction. So I remember thinking, I’ll get rid of Gregory, and have a Russian woman running the resort.”

Speaking over a call from Sydney, Moriarty says, it was almost like the name created the character. “She became a tall, striking, charismatic Russian woman. As soon as I had that character, I immediately saw Nicole, and had her in mind the whole time I was writing her.”

Two of Moriarty’s books have been adapted into prestige television with eye-watering production values and an ensemble cast.  Big Little Lies, based on her 2014 novel, also has Kelley as creator and writer and stars, apart from Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Alexander Skarsgård, Laura Dern and Meryl Streep.

Admitting to feeling lucky about the two adaptations, Moriarty says, “I was made to feel a part of the process, without actually having to do anything. It was a pleasure from start to finish. The adaptations bought me so many more readers who would otherwise never have discovered my books.”

Moriarty says adaptations need not be 100% faithful to the source material. “It is a different medium and there need to be changes to suit that medium. The best adaptations make the appropriate changes. Every single reader’s experience of reading a book is different, so an adaptation can’t ever completely replicate your individual experience. I might have answered this question differently if I ever got an adaptation that was not so wonderful.”

Both  Big Little Lies and  Nine Perfect Strangers have been moved from their setting in Australia to the US. “Letting them be set in another country makes it easier for me to let go. Perhaps if they were set in Australia, I would be saying, everything should be like my book. I don’t feel that landscape is my strength. There are some books where the Australian landscape is such an important part that it cannot be set anywhere else.”

Her books, Moriarty says, could happen anywhere. The exception, she says, is her second novel, The Last Anniversary (2006). “It is set on an island on the Hawkesbury River. That setting is important to me, and that adaptation must be set in Australia.”