Signing and Q&A by Mainlander/The Thick of It writer

Wednesday 16 March 2016

A Jersey author who has written for The Thick of It and Veep is in the Island this weekend for a Q&A and signing event for his book Mainlander, which the BBC are considering for an adaptation into a TV series.

Will Smith published Mainlander - a book about a teacher in 1980s Jersey against a backdrop of police corruption and the disappearance of a child – last summer.

The former Victoria College pupil is due back in the Island this week for a signing event at Waterstones.

The book – described by the Guardian as “The Wicker Man meets Fargo” – has gone down well in the Island, according to the writer, when he spoke to Bailiwick Express last week.

“The people who have read it have been quite evangelical about it,” said Will.

“I’ve not had any ‘you’re painting the Island in a bad light’ reaction at all. I didn’t want to be upsetting anyone, I just wanted to be setting an exciting, interesting book somewhere that I knew.

“I think it’s gone down well with the home crowd.”

A further three books in the series are ‘more or less planned out’ according to Will, who has also revealed that there has been interest from the BBC.

Aside from the Mainlander project, Will is also working on a pilot script for Mick Herron’s spy novel Slow Horses, a crime drama for the BBC and a Channel Four sitcom about YouTube chefs.

Will is going to be doing a Q&A at Waterstones on Friday from 6 pm to 7 pm, and a signing at the store on Saturday from 11 am to 3 pm.