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Firm Resolution

When I started this website, I made a firm resolution to myself that I’d keep it up to date. This wouldn’t be one of those half-hearted affairs where all the ‘latest news’ is nine months-old, and yet here I am, in early December, looking at last September’s hot news. It’s a bad situation, and I’m addressing it now.

The screenplay for One Day has, I’m pleased to say, gone pretty well and is no longer the monstrous, sprawling three-hour epic I feared. As I write this we’re close to confirming a wonderful director for the movie, which we still hope to make next summer. Casting will be the next big decision, and I’ve had no shortage of suggestions from readers for their ideal Dex and Em. I know who’s in my head when writing the parts, but intend to keep those personal choices private, for the time being at least.

I’ve also been working on a new feature-film version of Great Expectations, which I think is almost ready to be shown to directors. The script is largely faithful to the novel, but with a few new elements and a slight change of emphasis. Great Expectations was one of the first ‘grown-up’ novels I ever read, and has remained something of an obsession for me ever since, so to work on it in such detail has been a great pleasure.

And as soon as I’ve written this, I’m going to open a new document and begin a new project entirely from scratch. The last three years has been spent writing One Day and working on adaptations of other people’s work, so to actually be faced by an entirely blank page is more than a little daunting (which is why I’m updating the website instead). I can’t say much about it, except that it’s a television play, a love story, written specifically for two particular actors. Also, that I’m behind schedule.

Which means this is probably as good a time as any to wish any readers a Happy Christmas, and also to say thank you to anyone who has sent me kind messages about One Day via this website. The embarrassing speed with which I’ve replied is in indication of how delighted I am by your responses to the book. The paperback is published in February 2010. I will, of course, have updated this several times before then.