I must be the only person in the UK who hasn’t read The Kite Runner.  Something about it just doesn’t appeal to me although I know so many people have loved it.  But I have seen the film and loved it so much I promptly bought it for my Mum.  My sister has both read it and seen it, and that set me to wondering how often we watch something on telly or at the movies which started out as a book.  I didn’t know until last year that one of our own historical novels, Young Bess by Margaret Irwin, had been made into a glitzy movie back in 1953, with a cast which reads like a Hollywood Who’s Who: Jean Simmons, Deborah Kerr, Stewart Granger, Charles Laughton (guess who he played …).   Instead of doing any real work this afternoon, I think I’ll just plough through IMDB and see how many other examples I can come up with…

Susie Dunlop, Publishing Director