Don’t refer to women’s fiction as chick lit, says author

BOOKS should not be referred to as “chick lit” because more women than men read novels – and it should be men’s fiction that is the “sub-category”, the author of Big Little Lies has said.

Liane Moriarty, who sold the rights to the book to Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon for a blockbuster TV series, said women’s fiction should never be treated as a sub-genre because “women read more than men”.

Admitting she felt a “sense of shame” when people described her novel as “a girl’s book”, she said: “I get frustrated by the women’s fiction label. I’m not fond of the term.

“It doesn’t make sense, because women are the biggest readers of fiction. We should not be the sub-category – men’s fiction should be the sub-category, because we’re the ones reading all the fiction.

“If I’m at a party and someone asks, ‘What sort of books do you write?’ I have no idea what to say. If I was a man I’d probably just say ‘contemporary fiction’. People call it domestic noir, suburban satire … but they’re just stories.”

The Australian author, who wrote a follow-up novella for the second series of the hit HBO drama, also starring Shailene Woodley and Laura Dern, revealed what it was like meeting Oscarwinner Kidman to sell the rights to the 2014 novel.

“I got the call, and of course I was excited. But to be honest, I took it all with a grain of salt, because I had had books optioned before and nothing came of it. For me it was just a treat, the idea of meeting Nicole Kidman.

“She was just lovely and warm, and I said, ‘Well, I know not to get too excited, because this has happened before’. And she said, ‘No, no, if we option it, get excited!’ And she was right.”

The second season, which like the first has been adapted by David E Kelley, the screenwriter behind Ally Mcbeal and LA Law, will star Meryl Streep as Kidman’s character’s mother-in-law.

Speaking at a book signing in Sarratt, Herts, Moriarty, 51, said: “When I was trying to decide whether to do it or not, my sister said to me, ‘Only do it if it’s fun – and why not write a role for my favourite actress?’ So I thought, why not write a role for Meryl Streep?

“So I created the character of Celeste’s mother-in-law, and for my own secret fun I thought I’d find out what Meryl’s real name was – Mary-louise – which was actually perfect for the character.

“I was on the phone to the producers and I said, not quite believing my own audacity, ‘I’ve written this role for Meryl Streep.’

“And they were teasing me, saying, ‘You’ve become so Hollywood! Look at you, picking up the phone, saying Get me Meryl.’ I said, ‘If I can one day tell my friends I said ‘Get me Meryl’ and you got me Meryl, I will never ask for anything again.’

“I’m not sure how many months later I got this email saying, ‘Ask and you shall receive.’ I had Meryl.”

Moriarty has also sold the rights to her 2013 bestseller The Husband’s Secret for a film starring Blake Lively.

‘If I can one day tell my friends I said ‘Get me Meryl’ and you got me Meryl, I will never ask for anything again’