A FIRST novel by former D&S Times journalist Jane Harper has just been published and already snapped up by a film production company.

Movie rights to The Dry, which is set in Australia but partly based on her observations as a reporter in this country, have been acquired by Pacific Standard, owned by the Hollywood actress Reese Witherspoon.

Set amid the worst drought to ravage Australia in a century, the thriller is about who is really guilty for the murder of three members of the same family despite a suicide suggesting where blame lies.

The book has been described by critics as "a compulsive read" and "one of the most stunning debuts I've ever read".

Jane was a trainee reporter on the D&S Times, including a spell at the paper's Barnard Castle office, until becoming a senior news journalist on The Hull Daily Mail.

She spent part of her childhood in Australia with her family and moved back there in 2008 where she worked on newspapers. In 2014, she had a short story chosen for the Big Issue's annual Fiction Edition.

That inspired her to pursue creative writing more seriously and she applied for an online 12-week novel writing course. She was accepted with a submission for the book that would become The Dry and wrote the first full draft during the three-month course.

Jane said ideas for the novel were drawn from stories and conversations she had while working as a journalist in Hull and Beverley.

"The town in The Dry is highly dysfunctional and may seem a million miles away from East Yorkshire, but I think all communities experience their own strengths and problems, of often these play out in very similar ways, regardless of where they are located.

She added: "Having the film rights optioned by Reese Witherspoon's production company Pacific Standard was unbelievable. I lot of thinks have to fall into place for a movie to get made, but I would love to see it on the screen."