One Day author David Nicholls: ‘I’m still in a daze’

David Nicholls’ debut novel Starter For Ten has been adapted by Netflix. The film is based on Nicholls ’s novel One Day. Nicholls says he is still in a bit of a daze after One Day’s success. He says the reaction has been ‘really.

head-turning’ Nicholls’ bittersweet love story has sold six million copies since being published in 2009. The Netflix series, an instant hit with both viewers and critics, took things to another level. Nicholls: “The fact that people have watched to the end and then gone back to the beginning and watched again, all of that has been profoundly exciting” Starter For Ten is a stage adaptation of the hit Netflix series One Day. The musical is based on the book by Emma Morley, who starred in the film.

It is being staged at the Old Vic in Bristol, where it will be shown for the first time. Starter For Ten follows Brian as he tries to fulfil his lifelong dream of appearing on TV quiz show University Challenge. In 2006, the book was adapted as a film starring James McAvoy, Benedict Cumberbatch, James Corden and Catherine Tate. Co-writer Emma Hall says she and fellow writer and director Charlie Parham both read the book at university.

Coming up with songs to fit a coming-of-age story is one thing, but having to fit fiendish quiz questions into the lyrics was its own stern test. The location of the university was never specified in the original Starter For Ten book. The film and now the stage show place it in Bristol, where Nicholls himself studied drama and English. Nicholls graduated in 1988.

He may never have gone to university if he had faced today’s levels of student debt, he says - and nor would some of his characters. He says Bristol was a very happy time despite all the errors of judgement on the way. The author set up the Nicholls Arts Bursary to help support two undergraduates who want to take a theatre studies course at Bristol. He worries that people are getting priced out of studying the arts and humanities in all kinds of ways.

Nicholls is now preparing to publish his next novel, You Are Here, in April. While One Day has this it’s sort of epic sprawl over 20 years, You Are Here takes place over just 10 days. I love them both, and they do share certain themes. You are Here is about two people who find themselves alone in middle age, on a long walk.

Starter For Ten is at Bristol Old Vic until 30 March. David Nicholls: I have to find another aspect of being in love to write about. Read more here: http://www. dailymail.

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