Reading my e-mails in the bath the other day (I use a telescope) I noticed that quite a few people were asking whether any of my books have been made into films or TV series.

The answer is yes. Some of you may have seen the 13-part Misery Guts series that was screened last year by the Nine Network In Australia and the BBC in Britain. It's probably been on in some other countries by now, so if you're reading this in a place where you don't get good BBC or Channel Nine reception, it may be coming your way on another channel.

A couple of years ago Channel Four in Britain and ABC-TV in Australia broadcast a screen version of Blabber Mouth and Sticky Beak. In fact they each broadcast it in two ways – as a series of four 15 minute episodes and as a single 60 minute film. I think the shorter episodes were designed to be seen in schools so there'd be plenty of time left for intelligent discussion and algebra.

My first two books actually made it to the screen before they were printed. I wrote The Other Facts Of Life and Second Childhood as TV films for the Australian Children's Television Foundation. Then, while the films were being shot, I wrote them again as books. The films have both been out on video for a few years. If your school library hasn't got them, perhaps your local video store will. (Make sure they blow the dust off before they rent them to you.)

I hope the Misery Guts and Blabber Mouth series come out on video soon. I also hope that one day somebody makes a movie version of one of my books. There are producers who are keen to make movies of several of them – Two Weeks With The Queen, Bumface, Belly Flop, Water Wings – but so far none of them have actually managed to do it.

I'm still hopeful. Someone told me recently that Gladiator took nine years from the first glimmer of an idea to the first bucket of popcorn. That makes me feel very optimistic. Not one of my books has got anything like that many characters in it, and nowhere near that many pairs of sandals.

If those movies don't ever happen, though, I won't be too upset. My favourite place for stories is still the printed page. I reckon when you put words and the human imagination together, you get magic that even Hollywood can't equal. And you can enjoy it in the bath without binoculars.

Until next time,
Oo-roo and happy reading,

10 July 2000