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Unfinished Geography homework

Any regular visitors to this website will, like me, have come to the realisation that I am not one of life’s natural bloggers. It’s been nine months now, during which this shamefully late entry has lurked in the background like unfinished Geography homework. Geography homework would, I suspect, be more fun to read, but here goes anyway.

Writing this does at least give me a chance to thank the many people who’ve bought the books, come along to readings and Festivals and sent so many kind messages via the website. The last year has been – I was going to write ‘a rollercoaster’, but that’s a cliché, so instead I’ll just say ‘quite an adventure’, also a cliché. We spent the summer shooting the movie of One Day, in London, Paris, Brittany and Edinburgh. Like all movie shoots, or at least all the ones that I’ve been involved with, this has been the usual mixture of elation, anxiety, delight and frustration, but the movie is almost finished – they’re scoring it as I write –and will be out in August in the US, August or September elsewhere. The cast and production team have been brilliant, and we’ve tried at all times to be as faithful to the novel as possible, though inevitably the demands of pacing, running time, budget etc mean that some things have been lost along the way.  Twenty years into one-hundred minutes is a tight fit and like all movie adaptations, there have been some sad omissions, but I hope we’ve captured the flavour of the book. There are, or will be, some stills from the production on here, with more to come.

I’ve also been following the release of the novel all around Europe, pushing my luck with time away from home in Zurich, Barcelona, Milan, Amsterdam, Munich, Oslo, Rome and Paris, like some ageing back-packer. This year I hope to minimize my own grotesque carbon footprint, but I will be traveling to Stockholm in May and possibly to the US some time around the release of the film. I’ll post updates of any readings/signings on this website, probably about three weeks or so after the event has taken place.

One Day was published nearly two years ago now, and I’m delighted and amazed to find myself still talking about Em and Dexter. But I’ve now resolved to try and change the subject, settle down and start another book. I’m not sure what this will be about yet – I’m making notes on a number of ideas, and at present, the working title is Disappointing Follow-up– but all I can say with any certainty is that publication is some time away. Blogs, though arduous, are still a great deal easier to write than fiction, but I hope you’ll bear with me if this website goes very quiet for a while, or if messages take a while to be answered.

In the meantime, I can announce that I’ve been working on a movie version of one of my favourite novels, Great Expectations, which we hope to make towards the end of the year.  Mike Newell, of Four Weddings/Harry Potter/Donnie Brasco etc., is directing, and we’re casting the main roles at present, which is both incredibly exciting and strictly top secret. Obviously I have a certain amount of trepidation about the script – after all, Great Expectations has been made into a movie before, quite well I believe – but I’m very proud of the current script, which is both faithful to the novel whilst having its own tone and emphasis.  There’ll be more details on here, possibly, and on the over-trusty IMDB.

And that’s it. From now on, no more distractions, no more mindless web-surfing, just 1500 words a day of the next book.

Having said that, I should also add that I am, for the moment at least, on this new-fangled Twitter thing. I’m @davidnichollswr. Do feel free to follow, though don’t go expecting too much. I’m an inept and sporadic tweeter, and have no expectation of getting any better.

I’d only just got the hang of Friends Reunited, and now this has come along. What was wrong with Friends Reunited anyway?