From Page To Screen

First edition copies of Somewhere Only We Know can fetch up to £12 at auction but can be found for as little as 50p in many charity shops.

Rowena Westlake fans, who have been suffering of late from an absence of any new novels from the veteran author's pen*, will be delighted to hear that Threadflix will soon screen an adaptation of one of her earliest and greatest romances - Somewhere Only We Know.

The new six-part series starring Gwyneth Poltroon and Kevin Bacon-Butty - ably supported by Eider Downie Jnr and Bill Nightly - is in fact the second adaptation of the short novella. The first was made almost 50 years ago by Rank Threadbone Pictures and was directed by Dorset Studios' staple: Roy Boulting-Brothers**.

Though distressing to her fans, the recent literary drought has scotched rumours that Rowena Lake is in fact a franchise rather than a single author. Such was her output in the decades 1970-2010 that many believed her incapable of authoring her own works. ** It starred Hayley Mills-Anne Boon and a young Richard Harris-Tweed.

The new Threadflix adaptation has had a chequered history: filming was interrupted by the CONTRIK-69 fake-pandemic [as a result of which several cast changes became necessary] and there were then further delays as a result of the Humane Society Monitor's strike and later post production demarcation disputes which brought production studios to a standstill. Happily, according to TV Critic - Roe ten Tom-Attows - most of the joins are "more or less invisible" though viewers should be aware that at least one of the characters is played by several very dissimilar actors, creating the impression that Annagrette is either thrice married, a serial cheater and/or a tri-sexual. One commentator on social media has described the series as "a turd roiled in glitter" but that, according to a close friend of Ms Westlake "is a tad harsh".