Auckland barrister has first novel picked up by Hollywood - before it was even published

August 4, 2020

Rose Carlyle wanted to be a writer since she was six years old.

A Kiwi author has had her thriller novel picked up by Hollywood before it was even published.

Rose Carlyle’s The Girl in the Mirror is the first novel the 47-year-old Auckland barrister has penned.

It’s already landed her big book deals in the US and UK, as well as being sold into four other languages.

“It all just happened so fast. I can't give you any specifics but yeah, it's been amazing,” Carlyle told TVNZ1's Seven Sharp of the rights also being sold to a Hollywood movie company.

When she was six, wanting to be a writer, she was given a typewriter.

It's the same typewriter that she rests her laptop on today - the laptop she used to write The Girl in the Mirror.

“It was probably the worst time in my life to write a novel because I was starting a new job for the first time in a long time.

“I'd been a stay-at-home mum, and I had four teenagers and so I started getting up really early in the morning to write. And I think the reason I did that was I just needed an escape,” she said.

The novel focuses on a set of female twins and is overflowing with Hollywood-sized greed, secrets and deadly lies.

Rose Carlyle’s Girl in the Mirror was released by Allen & Unwin this week.

Watch the video above for Seven Sharp’s full interview with Carlyle.

SHARE ME