…as the redoubtable Sally Scott, who’s covered the story like it’s a proper beat, mentions in her latest Spudwise article:

And so it begins. It’s no secret that the doings of 13-year-old KwaZulu-Natal boarding school pupil Spud, aka John Milton, are to be committed to the big screen – in fact filming starts today in the Midlands.

Little did Durban’s John van de Ruit know, when his first novel was published by Penguin Books in September 2005, that his diary-style tales of a pre-pubescent schoolboy’s turbulent ride through an elite KZN boarding school, would become such a runaway success.

Spud, which won the 2006 Bookseller’s Choice Award, was soon whizzing around the world.

Sitting on the London Underground one afternoon I counted three commuters, in one carriage, reading Spud.

• Complete article