Author begins new chapter as Spielberg buys up novel

AN Edinburgh author is set to become a Hollywood millionaire after director Steven Spielberg snapped up the rights to one of his books.

The director's production company Dreamworks is to make a big screen adaptation of Children of the Lamp, which was penned by Philip Kerr for his son William to try and wean the ten-year-old off his PlayStation.

The man behind blockbusters such as ET and Indiana Jones plans to turn the story of a group of genies who pass for humans, but have the power to grant wishes, into a trilogy with two more books to be converted into films.

More than a million books have been sold in the series and, as the successor to popular fantasy series such as the Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter, he is about to reach a worldwide audience.

However Mr Kerr, 51, a former copywriter for Saatchi and Saatchi, who is married to another novelist, Jane Thynne, only ever thought he would be writing the children's books for his son.

"I actually was writing an adult book at the time. My older boy was not much of a reader and did not enjoy reading. He had shunned reading for video games and television," he was reported as saying.

"It seemed to be time for me to do something about that. I put aside the book I was working on and started to write this book for children. I wrote it really quickly and did not think I was going to get published."

Mr Kerr had already written about 12 books for adults under his full name.

"They are crime novels written for grown ups, and some nasty stuff happens," he said.

"I didn't want kids looking to those books and thinking they were reading the same author so I changed my name to PB Kerr."

Spielberg has handed the project to veteran producer Nina Jacobson, a former president of the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, who oversaw the Chronicles of Narnia, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Princess Diaries series.

Meanwhile, Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall will be given the task of turning the books into movie scripts.

The lamp books tell the story of twins John and Philippa Gaunt, who live in New York. The early arrival of their wisdom teeth at age 12 triggers strange dreams for the youngsters and a trip to London.

There they meet their eccentric Uncle Nimrod, who tells them the truth about their background - they were born of a Djinn mother and have extraordinary powers.

Book prize shortlist revealed

THE authors shortlisted for Britain's oldest literary prize have been announced.

The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are awarded annually by Edinburgh University for the best work of fiction and the best biography published during the previous year.

Acclaimed authors Cormac McCarthy, Alice Munro and Sarah Waters, are among the writers shortlisted. And for the first time, the prize-giving ceremony will take place during The Edinburgh International Book Festival.

The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are the only awards of their kind to be presented by a university anywhere in the United Kingdom. Past winners have included Sir Salman Rushdie and Zadie Smith.