Author rejects Hollywood offer

Tthe author Victoria Hislop has shunned a Hollywood offer to adapt her best-selling debut novel The Island, about a leper colony off Crete, in favour of a much smaller fee from a Greek television network.

She was offered £300,000 by a US film studio for the rights to her novel, which follows a British woman tracing her ancestry to the island Spinalonga, off the coast of Crete.

However, worried about how her novel might be handled by Hollywood producers, and eager to give something back to the country in which it is set, Hislop instead opted for the Greek company Mega, which will turn her novel into a 26-part series, employing 300 local actors.

"I was simply not happy with the approaches from America. I was worried what might happen to my story and my characters," said Hislop. "I feel much happier with some of my input [counting] and knowing that the Greeks, who took the book to their hearts, will care about making the series and keep loyally to the plot." Hislop will have a minor speaking role in the adaptation.