Epic romance is reborn as Thorn Birds, the musical
The publishing and TV sensation is being adapted for the stage and is set to tour the UK this spring
Vanessa Thorpe, arts and media correspondent
The Observer, Sunday 4 January 2009

That much-loved popular literary saga of forbidden passion and Catholic guilt set in the wild open spaces of the Outback, The Thorn Birds, is to be staged as a musical, 30 years after it caused a publishing sensation.
The book's reclusive Australian author, Colleen McCullough, has jealously guarded her work from all other attempts to adapt it for the stage, but this weekend the 71-year-old writer has announced plans to premiere a new musical version, directed by the award-winning Michael Bogdanov, before it starts a tour of Britain this spring.

McCullough's novel, which has sold more than 30m copies since it was published in 1977, is still regarded by many fans as the most romantic ever written. Germaine Greer recently dubbed it 'the best bad book ever' in response to publisher Virago's decision to reissue it as a modern classic.

Read the full report here.