With the world going gaga for the movie La La Land, quite understandly in my view, here’s a story that would surely make for a wonderful follow-up. How about this outline for the script:
Salford university. Two students, Katy Gough and John Siddle, take the same English language and journalism courses. They aren’t particularly close. She has her heart set on another student.
They leave in 2006 and go their separate ways. He begins a career in newspapers, eventually working on the Liverpool Echo. She is a PR for Manchester airport.
In 2012, Katy is due to wed her university boyfriend. But three months before the big day, he says he can’t marry her. Heartbroken and disillusioned, she quits her job, sells her house and car, and flies off to foreign parts.
To keep her family and friends informed about her adventures in Thailand, India, Nepal and, later, south America, she launches a blog to report on her travels, Not Wed or Dead.
It proves to be a big hit. A publisher signs her up for a three-book deal, and, using the pseudonym Katy Colins, her first novel in the series, The Lonely Hearts Travel Club, is entitled Destination Thailand.
It wins good reviews. Heat calls it a “life-affirming story... perfect escapism” and it is also described as “Bridget Jones goes backpacking”.
It’s just the kind of story to attract the attention of a local paper and John is assigned to cover it in January 2016. So, 10 years on from having spoken, he meets Katy once more.
Result: love, a pregnancy. And, tomorrow, a wedding in Kenilworth, Warwickshire. Their first child is due in late spring.
Katy notes excitedly on her blog: “Twelve months ago I was the jilted bride-turned-back-packing Bridget Jones. Next weekend I’m getting married.”
It could, she says, be a plot twist from one of my novels: “I feel like I’m living in a real-life romcom.”
Or could it be a plot for a new movie?
*John has since moved from the Echo to Trinity Mirror’s Coventry Telegraph as head of audience.
Hat tips: Liverpool Echo/HoldTheFrontPage/Not Wed or Dead