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What sequel would you like to write?

12:13 UK time, Friday, 26 March 2010

is being written by the former Poet Laureate . What story needs a sequel?

Sir Andrew says it is one of his favourite books and that he wants to create a tale "packed with its own adventure, excitement and pathos". The sequel will be published in 2012.

Dan Franklin, publisher at Jonathan Cape, says "anyone who loved Stevenson's original will fall on this book with cries of delight."

What other "missing sequels" would you like to see written? Are you against the idea of contemporary authors adopting other writers' literary creations? Can a sequel ever be better than the original?

This debate has now been closed. Thank you for your comments.

Comments

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  • Comment number 1.

    I don't know about a sequel but I would be tempted to rewrite Thomas Kenneally's 'The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith'. I would set it in 2009/10 Britain and change the character to a downtrodden man who has been stripped of all self-respect in the worst recession to hit the country for generations.
    Would it make a good book or would it be too difficult for the masses to read without thinking 'yeah, that's me?'?

  • Comment number 2.

    Off the top of my head I鈥檇 quite like to see a sequel to John Christopher鈥檚 "The Tripods Trilogy", mainly because I read it again recently.

  • Comment number 3.

    I'd have considered it had been a long lost sequel that had been written by the original author, but not if it's written by another author 130 years later.

    A bit like a contemporary painter copying Van Gogh's style, and trying pass it on as an equal.


  • Comment number 4.

    Not so much a sequel, perhaps, as finishing the job - Canterbury Tales. Chaucer told a marvellous story, but there so many of the tales missing, it would be wonderful to see it completed. Would there be any modern author up to the task, I wonder?

  • Comment number 5.

    Bible 2 - the Sequel. Relating to life in the 21st Century.

  • Comment number 6.

    Moby Dick - it would be called "Revenge of the Dick", and made into a movie in 3d. It would be set in 2160 on a planet called Pandora where 1 of Ahabs descendents had gotten hold of a bone from the whale and cloned him with the intent of torturing it. However the clone is accidentally mixed with human DNA and becomes a gigantic vengeful human/whale hybrid.

    It's what Melville would have wanted.

  • Comment number 7.

    I would do "The Old Testament Part II".

    In which God comes back after his day of rest, looks at the world he has created and says "blimey that was a mistake", throws it away and builds a new retail park instead.

  • Comment number 8.

    'The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists II'. At the end, they all say 'stuff this socialism lark, I just wanna be one of the greedy rich guys!!'

  • Comment number 9.

    Not so much a sequel, but a spiritual successor to Martin Amis's 'Time's Arrow'. It was a World War II story told in reverse. If he was up for it, I'd love to see him attempt it once more.

  • Comment number 10.

    Taming of the Shrew. The Burton and Taylor version practically screams for 'what happens next.'

  • Comment number 11.

    I wish George Orwell had written a sequel to 1984 (2014?) and told us how this all ends

  • Comment number 12.

    Not every sequel works. Indeed, some, which should be nameless, fall down very badly indeed. One that seems to keep close to the flavour of the original is The Night of the Triffids, a book which itself might benefit from its own sequel.
    1984? Probably impossible.

  • Comment number 13.

    What I've enjoyed is not so much a sequel, but taking one small facet of someone else's story and expanding on it. George McDonald Frazer took the character of Flashman - a minor character in "Tom Brown's Schooldays" - and created a whole series of novels about him.

    One thing I've speculated on is taking a fantasy setting - which are usually cod-mediaeval with elves & dwarves and magic which works - and writing about the same world a thousand years later, sort of cod-contemporary and still with elves & dwarves and magic which works. Wonder what Midkemia (Robert E. Feist's world) or the world of "Lord of the Rings" would be like in more modern times?

  • Comment number 14.

    Animal Farm the New Labour Years would be a wonderful read.
    Telling us that all of us are equal......yet some are still more equal than others.

  • Comment number 15.

    I would write a sequel to Orwell's 1984 and call it "January 2009, The rise of the Tyrant Obama and the age of Anarchy".

  • Comment number 16.

    In follow on to #13 if only George McDonald Frazer could have written the American Civil War chapter of the 'Flashman papers'.... its alluded to in so many of the other books but he never wrote it before his death. That one would be worth writing but I don't think any other author could do it justice.

  • Comment number 17.

    I'd like to know what became of Holden Caulfield, anti-hero of J.D.Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye". I read the book in my late teens, in the mid-1960s and, like so many of my generation, identified strongly with Holden's view of the world around him.
    I know what became of me and my close friends, but I know nothing of Holden's later life, and this has always intrigued me.
    Someone did attempt to write a sort of sequel, but the immensely private and secretive Salinger took legal action to block the publication.

  • Comment number 18.

    I've written my sequel - it's quite short. Here goes. 'And Gordon and his party were banished into the wilderness and were never heard of again.'

  • Comment number 19.

    Being a simple soul, in my case it would be a film script. A sequel to 'Capricorn One'. The film ends when the supposedly dead astronaut appears running towards his own memorial service. I'd like to see what happened next when the excreta hits the fan.

  • Comment number 20.

    Why? Its just like the modern pop groups endlessly rehashing genuine hits. If you can't do something original, then don't do anything at all

  • Comment number 21.

    The Mystery of Edwin Drood. I can't bring myself to read an unfinished book as it is

  • Comment number 22.

    Hmm...my comment (6) appears to be taking some time for moderation...it was a suggestion for a sequel to Moby Dick. Could it be that using our favourite white whale's surname requires approval? If so I think that's fantastic as it highlights why we can never write sequels to the classics - they would need be to be politically corrected!

    Does that mean that in the treasure island sequel "long john silver" would have to be renamed as "reproductively gifted chronologically enhanced?"

  • Comment number 23.

    At 2:13pm on 26 Mar 2010, The Running Man wrote:
    The Mystery of Edwin Drood. I can't bring myself to read an unfinished book as it is

    I know what you mean, its infuri.....................

  • Comment number 24.

    All this user's posts have been removed.Why?

  • Comment number 25.

    I can't see the point of another author writing a sequel. Seems as if he can't manage a good story by himself.

    Surely Sir Andrew could write a good book or series in its own right? If not, he should not be writing.

  • Comment number 26.

    I am going to upset the consensus on this page by requesting a sequel screen play be rewritten to Italian Job. I exclude some tacky American remake.

    I would set it in London during the 2012 Olympics, the objective will be to use new Mini's to defeat all the Liberal Left traffic planning and striking transport workers to actually get to see the games.

  • Comment number 27.

    As a matter of personal taste, I like sequels that get to the real facts.
    I like the idea of contemporary authors, not extending or ending the fictional account, but rather digging into it, researching and then, having found the real history, retelling the story like it was.
    For example, I really enjoyed Stephen Lawhead鈥檚 rewrite of Robin Hood 鈥 as a Welsh freedom fighter who never set foot in Nottingham let alone Sherwood Forest. Lawhead says the folk hero and his band of merry men carried out their thieving in the Marsh, a primeval forest in Wales in the 11th century, more than a hundred years before the English Robin Hood.
    From the Welch woodlands, Robin launched blitz attacks against Norman armies. In his book, Lawhead names Robin Hood as Bran ap Brychan. Just like the classic version of Robin Hood, Lawhead's re-telling involves a beautiful maiden, a wine-imbibing priest and plenty of heartless kings and other royalty.
    But the American historian has Bran fleeing to the woods of the March rather than Sherwood, where he meets Angharad, a mysterious healer and storyteller. Angharad's faith in Bran's potential as king eventually inspires Bran's notion to steal from the rich in order to raise the money needed to buy back the kingdom and free his people, forced into abject poverty & slavery by their rulers.
    In answer to your question, I like Lawhead鈥檚 sequel because it鈥檚 truer to fact and I learn from it. I like to learn from what I read.
    I don鈥檛 know how much tolerance I will receive from the moderators, but did you know the Bible (at least the Genesis portion) is a sequel. The original is called the Enuma Elish and was Sumerian in derivation. You cannot read the Enuma Elish and not see Genesis, but the Enuma Elish was written thousands of years before the Bible.
    The beginning two lines to the Enuma Elish:
    "When on high the heaven had not been named,
    Firm ground below had not been called by name..."
    I wonder how many have read the original鈥

  • Comment number 28.

    To answer your question - No, I won't be reading this "sequel".

    Treasure Island was written by Robert Louis Stevenson in a completely different time and the location was, at that time, relatively unknown and tribal. I speak of Samoa, where he is thought to have based his story. Having lived there I can identify with his story - he lived there himself, and died there. For another author to be presumtious enough to write a sequel now, in a completely different time, and with a doubtless different perspective, will ruin the story for so many.
    I know it not the case with every story, but generally the sequel, if it was not originally intended, is a pale reflection of the first story and detracts from the whole. The next thing that will happen is to write a prequel, and so on.
    Actually, writing a sequel to someone else's book is not only presumtious, but it shows that lack of originality coming from the new author. Can he not come up with his own ideas?

  • Comment number 29.

    5. At 1:23pm on 26 Mar 2010, Andrew Lye wrote:
    Bible 2 - the Sequel. Relating to life in the 21st Century.


    Good news - it already does!

  • Comment number 30.

    7. At 1:28pm on 26 Mar 2010, Stan Pomeray wrote:
    I would do "The Old Testament Part II".

    In which God comes back after his day of rest, looks at the world he has created and says "blimey that was a mistake", throws it away and builds a new retail park instead.





    Thank God that instead of wiping it all out and starting again, God gave us a second chance - despite the cost to Him!

  • Comment number 31.

    As other people have said, this seems a bit pointless. There's no 'need' for a sequel, and if it's written by a different author, from a totally different culture, in what way is it a 'sequel' as opposed to a 'book written with a vaguely similar premise'?

    If Sir Andrew wants to write a novel about pirates, and treasure etc, then what's stopping him? But to call it a sequel to Treasure Island is presumptuous and asking for trouble.

  • Comment number 32.

    The sequals to Animal Farm and 1984? Some purport these exist as vindication of current oppressive politics in the UK. Fair comment.

    Actually, they are two very different plots - Orwell examined different and various forms of abuse? There are better writers than Orwell who considered his ideas, but at least he sowed the seeds of examination of exploitation 'in all areas' as we might call it today?

    Abuse and misuse of power continues today in UK in many forms; whether political and/or religious ideology? All must be 'forced' to remain open and free for examination and critique in UK today and tomorrow? Any political/religious organisation in UK must have an open agenda and policy - publicly declared - whether operating under charity status or otherwise?

  • Comment number 33.

    The Bible 2 : Revenge of The Christians

  • Comment number 34.

    Running man: I can't bring myself to read an unfinished book as it is.

    That's funny, because I never read the last few pages of a book. The endings are always so disappointing, I can't stand it.

  • Comment number 35.

    Day of the Triffids. In building a new world did we learn from the past? Doubt it.

  • Comment number 36.

    Marx 2 鈥 I was trying to do the right thing. But I now understand that I gave pseudo intellectual backing to a load of envy filled, socially unproductive, murderous bigots. I apologise.

    I鈥檓 now going to take my revolver into the study for a while.

  • Comment number 37.

    The Bible 2

    Minus the fantasy and based on provable fact.

    It's a very short book.

  • Comment number 38.

    I don't mind sequels written by the original authors, but by someone else entirely... Whats wrong with their own imagination that they have to steal someone others ideas? Remakes and Sequals on classic films and books are always doomed to fail. Even it they have some worth they usually only have moderate success and fall into obscurity quickly. Its literally asking yourself to be compared to someone who is a proven great.

    Treasure Island is an absolute classic, that ends they way it ends. To even attempt to follow it up is an insult to the author and against their wishes... after all that's why it ends where and how it does.

    So as to what I would write a sequel too? Nothing. There is no one I could possibly feel I could do honorable justice too or any books I think I can make any judgment post its ending. That and I have far too many of my own ideas to work with.

  • Comment number 39.

    The question should have been worded either:
    1. What would you like to write?
    or
    2. Which sequel would you like to write?
    Tut, tut 大象传媒 !

  • Comment number 40.

    How about a sequel to " The New Labour Years - Decline and Fall of a Once Great Nation"? I think I will call it "Consigned to Oblivion".

  • Comment number 41.

    33. At 2:42pm on 26 Mar 2010, HailNewPuritan wrote:

    The Bible 2 : Revenge of The Christians

    ---------------------------------------

    Followed by a new hope (under title 'athiests strike back?')

    Seriously though I wish I was tallented enough to write a sequel to Brad Thors books. There is just no way I could write anything I could compare to his series. Blows me away every time and I am always looking for a new book to come out.

    Just a request (an agnostic to all religions and non-religions) can we leave the bible bashing now. Everyone knows there is no way the bible can be updated (excluding modifications as the romans did) because in over 2000 years its never changed much.

    For us atheists instead we must be happy with the many books of fact, truth and science which do get updated when they are proven wrong

  • Comment number 42.

    Pieces of Eight, so Jim will be in his twenties. Not sure how many of the others would be around. Interesting scenario for the writer.
    I think, most probably, the 1950 fifties film brought the book to life.
    I read the book again a few years ago and Robert Newton's Long John Silver sprung from the pages like he was real, Smollet, Billy Bones
    and Ben Gunn's 'got a bit of cheese' all came alive.
    So a new book will have to do two things, 1. Arouse a new imaginative picture of the characters away from what we already know and 2. To be a different story to what we already know.

  • Comment number 43.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 44.

    Animal Farm and 1984.

    Actually, these novels were two very different plots - Orwell challenged many different forms of abuse by those 'in power'? There are better writers than Orwell who considered his ideas, but at least he sowed the seeds of examination of exploitation 'in all areas' as we might call it today?

    Abuse and misuse of power, continues today in UK, in many forms; whether political and or/religious ideology? All those who purport to have 'answers' must be forced to remain open and free for examination and critique in UK today and tomorrow.

    Any political or religious organisation operating in the the UK, must have by law an open and public agenda - whether under charitable status or otherwise?

  • Comment number 45.

    Given the opportunity I would have a crack at the Bible. Bibles part Deux. Its about time the record was set straight on this work of fiction. Jesus would do a dirty Den. Veronica and Magdelene would do an Anna Freil Brookside thing. Eve would go on a diet on kick the apples. God would create "the light" on the first day, rather than the seventh so that he could what a mess he's making. Pontious Pilot would actually get his pilots license, the charlatan; the last supper would be a special episode of Come Dine With Me, where they all slagged off each others houses and got pissed on Echos Falls wine, and Dave lamb would narrate the whole film. I propose Chris Mayles to play Jesus, as he's been method acting this part ever since he saw himself in the mirror.

  • Comment number 46.

    It is amazing to me that anyone has the presumption and ego to cash in on someone else's original work. It's like waving a banner that says " I think I am the equal of this particular classic writer of the past ...I just don't want to risk writing a book that may be taken no notice of, so I'll stand on the shoulders of a giant and steal their idea". The gall of it is staggering.

    This literary opportunism is rife in the film and television world too where adapted scripts take such liberties with the original novel that you realise they have used the name of the original book and the basic characters just for marketing reasons. Don't get my mother started on the topic of the beloved Larks Rise to Candleford! She adores that book, but the television program of it just used the name of the book. Little else was recognisable from the original. The latest film of Sherlock Holmes is yet another example.

  • Comment number 47.

    I wd. like to see sequels to all H. Rider Haggard's yarns, &, mind you, as well written!

  • Comment number 48.

    15. At 1:48pm on 26 Mar 2010, ONE-SICK-PUPPY wrote:

    I would write a sequel to Orwell's 1984 and call it "January 2009, The rise of the Tyrant Obama and the age of Anarchy".
    I bet you also believe that Obama's not really a US citizen too.
    A sequel to Samuel Butler's EREWHON called LLAREGGUB and set in the US, now that's a society that seems to have things a**e backwards

  • Comment number 49.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 50.

    Blakes 7.

  • Comment number 51.

    Casablanca

  • Comment number 52.

    46. At 3:30pm on 26 Mar 2010, histJunkie wrote:

    This literary opportunism is rife in the film and television world too where adapted scripts take such liberties with the original novel that you realise they have used the name of the original book and the basic characters just for marketing reasons. Don't get my mother started on the topic of the beloved Larks Rise to Candleford! She adores that book, but the television program of it just used the name of the book. Little else was recognisable from the original. The latest film of Sherlock Holmes is yet another example.

    ----------------------------------

    I have never read a sherlock holmes due to my dyslexia but I cant watch it on TV unless its Basil Rathbone. He is the perfect look and action of the character

  • Comment number 53.

    #8. At 1:29pm on 26 Mar 2010, LippyLippo wrote:
    'The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists II'. At the end, they all say 'stuff this socialism lark, I just wanna be one of the greedy rich guys!!'

    --------------------------------

    Absolutely brilliant! Seriously though, I would like to see the 大象传媒 or some other company make a dramatisation out of the original story.

  • Comment number 54.

    Re comment number 7 - Stan you echo my sentiments exactly. Who would have thought that such utter tosh would still be relevant today?

  • Comment number 55.

    Writing a sequel to the great classics is a real challenge. If it manages to capture the spirit and sustain the interest of readers or film goers, it would be a brilliant attempt. The power to rouse interest in a great book and to recapture the magic and give it a new dimension are worthy objectives. It is not a question of trying to cash in on somebody else's work. Rather it is a tribute to the original writer!

  • Comment number 56.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 57.

    I'd like to read another book or two of Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy, but I don't think it'd be quite the same if I wrote it instead of Philip!

  • Comment number 58.

    "At 1:38pm on 26 Mar 2010, Jane wrote:

    I wish George Orwell had written a sequel to 1984 (2014?) and told us how this all ends"


    '2010' (the sequel to 1984) ... What happens when Governments go *really* bad!

  • Comment number 59.

    How does this "writing a sequel to someone else's book" differ from the established underground culture of fan fiction?

    It's snared a lot of people who might make decent authors in their own right, but because they want to set their tales in someone else's (copyright) world - science fiction is popular, shedloads of stuff set in the Star Trek universe, Blake's 7, Stargate SG-1, and the like - they cannot get published.

    In fantasy, however, there is an established culture of 'shared world' writing - such as the Thieves' World series or numerous collections based on worlds originally created for role-playing games (I have over 230 books set in the Dungeons & Dragons world of Forgotten Realms, for example!); that seems a far better way to go.

  • Comment number 60.

    A sequel, a prequel, that is all we get today!
    Someone found a formula that works, i.e. makes money, and so it is this happens after, this lead to it!
    Where is the originality!
    Sequels, even prequels and JR Tolken was a master of this, are written by the same person.
    A book written by A.N.Other should not be marketed as a sequel, it is not it is not written from the same standpoint, same experience base. It is a new work without the courage to stand up and say, 鈥渢his is me, my new book, and what I think happened next.鈥
    It is also irrelevant I know what I think happened next, I read the book aged about 8 and filled in the blanks with my IMAGINATION!

  • Comment number 61.

    Curious how did my last post pop up without the interminable wait for the moderators.

    OK it is clear insightful and interesting, but now the door is too narrow for my head!

    How about Lord of the Flies for a sequel? Would it be a high finance and the diplomatic corp for them?

    Blast just saw the notice "post moderated"

  • Comment number 62.

    Yes with the following Players
    Alex Salmond as Blackbeard, Swinney as Ben Gunn, Darling as Long john silver. and gordon Brown as Patch the Blind pirate

  • Comment number 63.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 64.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 65.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 66.

    Although it is not a work of fiction, I think Karl Popper's classic two-volume work "The Open Society and its Enemies" could do with a sequel that describes what remedies might be employed to change a society that is not open into one that is. It would seem particularly apposite given trends we are seeing all around the world in various political systems of government and specific laws being passed by various governments. I propose that, since it will be concerned with "unblocking" otherwise closed societies in terms of free enquiry and questioning, it might be adequately titled "The Closed Society and its Enemas"

  • Comment number 67.

    My sequel would be 2084 the sequel to Orwell鈥檚 1984. In 2084 The party would be replaced by The Council of Imams - for England is now an Islamic state and its government is a tyrannical theocracy. Orwell鈥檚 proles are replaced by us infidels, and the hero of the original would be replaced by Gemma Smith a women in her early 30s who tries to rebel against the suffocating life imposed on her by the Councils strict application of Sharia law.
    I might even have a stab at really writing this.

  • Comment number 68.

    My sequel would be Dracula 2010AD,where Dracula sues the NHS for gum disease and is forced to admit his life sucks.

  • Comment number 69.

    ""33. At 2:42pm on 26 Mar 2010, HailNewPuritan wrote:
    The Bible 2 : Revenge of The Christians""

    Hee Hee

    followed by number three " oh dear now the Atheists are feeling a bit daft (and hot...)"

  • Comment number 70.

    I have actually written a sequel to Harry Potter, although I'd never risk doing anything about it!!

    Sequels can be something of a disappointment, so I would be very wary.

    I think I'd like to write a sequel to The Canterbury Tales.

    Happy reading.

  • Comment number 71.

    Oh god no, not another sequel....there's nothing but sequels, nothing original.
    Son of Black Beauty was okay, but not Black Beauty's Family, Heidi's Children was okay, Return of Pollyanna, Peter Pan and the Starcatchers, What Katy Did at School, Clover....

  • Comment number 72.

    Why not? If the original message or meaning is not changed, then, I definitely would read it.

    Like the Bible says, " GOD created man in his own image." Again in Quran God didn't disclose his identity as they believe He existed without any shape and size.

    Everything changes with time and growth. I personally would like to see that I would include what I couldn't include in my writing to the latest development surrounding the truth and the evidence to prove it right.


    Everything is fiction unless it's a proven fact and we avoid to be wrong in lessons that we learn. What we don't know is lesson and what we know is the education.

    And education opens the doors to better understanding and the cause of many conflicts of interest.

  • Comment number 73.

    'Tess of the D'urbervilles' would make a good sequel. Tess is found not guilty of murder, by an all woman Jury, enters Parliament and becomes Minister for Women. Angel becomes a Druid, but really wants the job of Archbishop.

  • Comment number 74.

    Aready done it and looking for a publisher! 'The Crysalids' by John Wyndham always cried out to me that it needed something extra . . . when one of the characters refuses to escape with his friends to return to a home where they were persecuted in order to save the remaining one of their telepathic group - that is a story that HAS to be told. And I have told it. Any publishers interested?

  • Comment number 75.

    Perhaps a sequel to the Bible, in which Jesus returns to earth, looks at what the Catholic church is doing, and says "Listen guys, where exactly did I say condoms were bad? Didn't you get the point from last time I was here that saving lives was more important than dogma? Did anyone ever write about what I told those scribes and pharisees last time?"

  • Comment number 76.

    I'd write "Money Grabbing Vampire Banker part 2 --- (2015) The second bailout)". Its all part of my story

    but then again I may not have to. because we'll maybe hear all about it in the news ....

  • Comment number 77.

    I would write a sequel to Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian. Its about how this woman is connected to Vlad Dracula. It ends so abruptly that it makes you wonder what happens. What does she do?

  • Comment number 78.

    I'm not sure whether sequels are defined differently to those in a series?

    For another author to use the popularity of another story for profit, sounds dubious at best to me. All the wonderful stories I grew up with, have been trivialized by Disney or similar. This proposed venture by Sir Andrew Motion, might be best if he keeps it for his own family's enjoyment?

  • Comment number 79.

    The Ten Commandments Volume II


    11, Never use Twitter - it rots the brain
    12, Never believe anyone who says blowing yourself up gets you to heaven
    13, Never watch reality TV
    14, Never watch any group where the members do not play instruments
    15, Always sack a politician who swapped his main residence.

    etc etc

  • Comment number 80.

    Paradise Lost 2 - AKA Britain Under NuLabour

  • Comment number 81.

    Isn't this just the literary equivalent of the music industries practice of ripping off samples of popular songs to increase the seleability of mediocre garbage?

  • Comment number 82.

    Bible 2.

    And if `was` based on facts, would take less than a coffe break to read.

  • Comment number 83.

    A sequel to George Orwell's "1984" is long overdue. The ogre of Big Brother Gordon's menacing face staring out from the Telescreen into everyone's homes is finally removed as Big Brother Brown has to face an election and loses BIG TIME - I suppose it would be called "2010".

  • Comment number 84.

    39. At 3:08pm on 26 Mar 2010, ed_butt wrote:
    The question should have been worded either:
    1. What would you like to write?
    or
    2. Which sequel would you like to write?
    Tut, tut 大象传媒 !

    My comment on this:

    Dear oh dear, you can`t say: "which sequel would you like to write?" because it hasn`t been written yet.

    "What would you like to write a sequel to?"

    OR:

    "Which book,(or play, or film), would you like to write a sequel to?"

    And another thing, (not you ed-butt), will people, for Heaven`s sake, learn that there`s a complete difference of meaning between "TO" and "TOO". In fact learn that there is such a word as "TOO". Thank you. I`ll go and lie down now. I`ll be fine. I will get a life I promise.

  • Comment number 85.

    1984. It would be a blog, set in 2010. My diary. Might as well be, I feel like Winston Smith most days!!

  • Comment number 86.

    'The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists II' - I'm reading part 1 of this at the moment - the 'Money Trick'is particularly relevant to our times. I think it's turning me into a neo-socialist (just like it did last time I read it!!) - The original - what a great book!!

  • Comment number 87.

    All inventions that saw us up to 21st Century are mostly naked as caught through notices only by Brilliant Brains; often unproved but later changed our lives forever through infusing of finer ideas on to it without separating the name or names of the inventor(s). Therefore, any sequels added to any manuscripts with name of the Author keeping intact and untouched is a respect shown to the author than considering it otherwise.

    Once one is successful in doing so, we can possibly add this beauty to many more books to keep the name of the Authors alive and flying high within us instead of damaging the reputation of the said Noble ones who wrote or dedicated the write-ups to us provided the inner meaning of the original is not taken out or cause a hurt onto it . Therefore the action is possibly correct to pay respect to the original Author on whose mind, the idea first breed or took shape.

    (Dr.M.M.HAZARIKA, PhD)

  • Comment number 88.

    Good grief - NO.
    Why does it need a sequel? Sequels, written by other than the original author are like "cheap" Hollywood remakes, promising all and delivering nothing.
    If you want to write a sequel, first write a book with your own new idea, and then do a sequel to that.

  • Comment number 89.

    If I had the brains and talent I would write a continuation of Patrick O'Brian's saga about the Royal Navy. I think it would be especially interesting to follow the career of young Lt. William Reade in the Navy on into the later years of the 19th Century and explore how life in the Navy changed as the Age of Sail ended.

  • Comment number 90.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 91.

    A sequel to treasure island? By Mr Motion... sounds like a pile of sh***

  • Comment number 92.

    A sequel to the Bible, Koran, Torah and other similar mediaeval guides to living, which are leading their fans to kill each other and discriminate against minorities and the followers who happen to have been brought up in societies favouring the 'wrong' book. The Vatican could also do with a sequel to its obviously unclear guide to modern secular law.

  • Comment number 93.

    Not so much a sequel. But i would go with sven hassel.wheels of terror
    Or as No 14 says animal farm.

    The problem is America can ruin some good writing. Judge dredd strikes a note. Argh!

    Or how about now is near 2012 olympics chariots of fire 2 Zero tollerance.
    One mans quest to take drugs out of the sports.
    Ooooo bachman books the long walk.. or to you and me Steven king under a pen name.

  • Comment number 94.

    @92, haha epic

    I'd like the most to see a sequel to the Koran exposing the truth that it is all a bunch of crap.

  • Comment number 95.

    It's sad when writers with talent (Motion wouldn't be Poet Laureate without having been great at some point in his career) feel the need to trade off other people's work.

    It's publishers' laziness and reluctance to take chances on new talent that's causing this nonsense. I might actually read the book - but I'd get it out of the library because the 60p he will earn will be all it's worth - the 拢1 I'd pay for the original as a classic reprint would be money better spent.

  • Comment number 96.

    92. At 9:00pm on 26 Mar 2010, coastwalker wrote: RUBBISH!

    Its not the books its the people who miss read the books.Not everybody kills under the name of religion. Some people are quite happy to throw stones. or cut a hand off.
    Thats a law not a book of religion
    Blowing people up is a terrorist act and they use a religion to say that god is with them.
    If god wasn't real and everyboy knew this then they wouldn't kill and life would be fantastic.

    I wouldn't like to see what you would make of Dr strangelove..

  • Comment number 97.

    I'd set it on Belize, where a group of private investigators go in search of the infamous Pirate Ashcroft. With a leaked email, they track down the real Tory policies which are to be sprung on the nation after the election. They must rush to sieze the papers before the people are duped and a government is elected headed by Cast-Iron Cameron (so-called because he had a guarantee which backfired,seriously denting his opinion poll rating). Chasing our intrepid heroes are Gideon 'Georgie' Osborne who is after the treasure-chest so he can pass it on to his chums; Kennie 'ciggy' Clarke who wants to get the huge hoard of gold back that he got by allowing the hospitals and schools he was supposed to manage to fall down; Grayling, who is always just three steps behind his leader and the news media and can turn the most basic statistic into a complete lie and Haguear the Horrible a man who sinks fourteen pints (of dandelion and burdock) and Britain's reputation in europe in a single day- Ashcroft's secret gofer sometimes known as Mr Smear. None of them can lay hands on the Ashcroft who can always terrorise Cameron by threatening to publish their policies early through his media contacts! I won't spoil it by suggesting the outcome but if Cameron gets back to Downing Street it will be the greatest act of larceny of modern timess...

  • Comment number 98.

    I doubt that I have the ability to do justice to such a thing, but I'd love to read more about E.F. Benson's "Mapp and Lucia" characters (Tom Holt has written two excellent ones; I wish he'd do more), and more about J.P. Martin's "Uncle" - I adored the Uncle books as a child, and they've retained their magic for me 40-odd years on.

  • Comment number 99.

    Every fairy story deserves a sequal.Fairy Stories have enchanted everyone on the planet.The Authors are forever written into history.
    They deserve every accolade for portaying a world everyone aspires to.
    Wish we could replace every Politician on the Planet with such Authors.

    Wold it not be wonderful if we could believe everything a Politician told us were true.Would it not be wonderful if we could believe every single word we read in a Newspaper was true.

    Am 72 years old.
    Have been told a lot of Fairy Stories.In the coming six weeks,will be told some more Fairy Stories.

    Do I place my trust in JM Barrie.Hans Christian Anderson?
    Need to vote for someone?Which Party should I trust?Which Newspaper should I trust?
    Need some advice?
    Help.

  • Comment number 100.

    I wouldn't dream of reading it. It can't be followed. Mr Motion should write something original.

    If he wants to do a sequel, he should volunteer to be a script writer for Pirates of the Carribean X (can't remember how many we are up to).

    I wouldn't have the cheek to write a sequel to anything I truly admired. Mostly, masterpieces stand by themselves. I wish I had written Animal Farm, or 1984, or Lucky Jim, or Winnie the Pooh. But I didn't, and trying to add to them is silly. However, I would like to write something completely new that meets the standards set by, for example, Raymond Chandler or P G Wodehouse. Or George Orwell.

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