I’ve spent years reading novels and watching their film adaptations with a sense that something important is usually being missed in the discussion. Too often the debate collapses into a simple verdict — the book was better, or the film improved on it — without any serious consideration of how different forms tell stories, or why certain choices succeed in one medium and fail in another.
I come to this question from both sides of the divide. I studied English literature before completing postgraduate training in film and television, and I’ve written and published my own books. That background has left me less interested in ranking books against films than in understanding the specific pressures, possibilities, and compromises that shape each form. What matters to me is not so much whether an adaptation is “faithful”, but whether it is intelligent — whether it understands the story it is trying to tell, and what medium is best suited to tell it.
This publication is an attempt to slow that conversation down. Rather than quick verdicts, I want to spend time with both the book and the film, paying attention to the specific work each is doing. That means looking at narrative voice, structure, tone, and theme on the page, and then at performance, direction, editing, and visual language on screen. Some adaptations fail because they misunderstand their source; others fail because they understand it too well and don’t allow the film to become its own thing. Others fail because commercial pressures demand simplification in order to appeal to the broadest possible audience. This Substack is interested in that tension.
I’ll be publishing long-form reviews here, moving between books and their screen adaptations, along with occasional essays on books and their films more broadly. The aim is to think deeply and carefully in public, and to invite readers who enjoy that kind of attention to do the same. If you’re interested in books, films, and the complex space in between, I hope you’ll find something worth returning to here.
