Big Little Lies

For the last few weeks I’ve been seeing trailers on TV for a new must-see drama on Sky Atlantic called “Big little lies” starring Reese Witherspoon. Surely, I thought, that’s not based on the book I read a year or so ago by Liane Moriarty, an Australian author who specialises in low-key, domestic “women’s” stories, where the seeming mundanity of the character’s lives hides all sorts of nefarious goings-on. It transpires it is one and the same, transplanted to California from a small beach-side community near Sydney – further confusion is caused by the fact that the book was originally published with the title “Little lies”.As I don’t subscribe to Sky Atlantic I won’t be able to tell you how faithful the drama is to the book, but I hope it captures the gossipy, bitchy flavour of Moriarty’s novel, with its school-gate politics, Chinese whispers & allegations of dreadful deeds committed in the kindergarten sandbox. Of course secrets and lies also abound, and from the start the author lets us know that this is all leading to a calamity of some kind, which culminates in the aptly named “Trivia Night”. This is Moriarty’s strength – she writes with a light touch that seduces you into thinking everything is fun and froth – until she suddenly reveals the nastiness underneath. This, however, she does so deftly that you’re not left feeling manipulated, as can be the case with lesser writers – instead you come away reassured that sh*t happens but usually you survive.