The Great Gatsby: It better be worth the Great Wait

A trailer to The Great Gatsby was first circulated in August 2012 and at the time it was set for a release date around Christmas. Even that date had been a postponement from an earlier release. I took the opportunity to re-read the book. I finished the book. The release date came and went without so much as a tinkle of a champagne glass and we forgot all about it.

What has happened in the meantime is anyone's guess. It is hard to imagine a more capable film-maker than Baz Luhrmann to transform the Great American Novel to glorious 21st century high-definition technicolour, so the delay can only be speculated upon. There has been talk of clashing release dates in the past. May 10 seems like a fairly reliable one to put in your diary.

There's a nice Vanity Fair piece on the mansion here

The Fall of the Essex Boys: a tale revisited

Not sure what this is going to be like, but it isn't the first time the real-life story of the Rettendon murders has made it to the silver screen.

A fairly gruesome tale it was too, and one considerably removed from the experiences of Ryan and co in White City, although Thetford Mike might have had something to do with this little lot.

Of course this actually happened. White City did not.

But it should be remembered that the kind of violence surrounding this tale is far from the norm, despite what a lot of people would have you believe.

The Great Gatsby trailer

I'm reading The Great Gatsby so when the film comes out later in the year I can compare it to the book, and also because I find inspiration in these Great American Authors and their style of storytelling.

And inspiration is what I'm looking for right now as I weigh up all the ideas running through my mind for my second novel.

In the spirit of the likes of Fitzgerald, or Twain, Salinger and Steinbeck, I would like to pen the equivalent of the great American novel.

But in my case it would be the Great Essex Novel. With fake tan.