WOMEN writers seem to have a special knack of penning epic romantic novels packed with passion and incident, that instantly capture the reading public's interest.

Not only the reading public, as subsequent adaptations for other media bear witness.

The classic book in this genre is Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind in 1936, famously filmed by Selznick with Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable. Sequels have been written – though not by the original author – and there have been two musical versions, both of them dismal failures.

A major problem was, of course, the fact that the book ran to a thousand pages, and how can you condense that quantity of incident into a couple of hours of stage?

Hoping to clear all the hurdles where Gone With The Wind adaptations foundered is a new musical based on Colleen McCullough's book The Thorn Birds.

In her homeland she holds the Order of Australia, and has been awarded the Living National Treasure of the Australian Nation.

The Thorn Birds was published in 1977, and is not only regarded as the best of her 17 novels, it has been hailed as the Australian Gone With The Wind.

In 1982 it became a television mini-series starring Richard Chamberlain.

So far, though, it has not been staged as a musical.

Until now, when Colleen McCullough has written the adaptation herself, and the lyrics, with the score composed by Gloria Bruni, who has performed her Requiem for Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.

The plot revolves around the ill-fated romance between the beautiful Meggie Cleary and the handsome Roman Catholic priest Father Ralph de Bricassart.

Spanning the lives of three generations struggling to survive in the harsh ruggedness of the Australian outback, it features heroism, dark and conflicting passions, forbidden love, secrets, lies, manipulation and money.

Taking the leading roles of Meggie and Ralph are Helen Ankler, who has enjoyed many West End runs, and Matthew Goodgame, who won the highly popular Channel 4 series Musicality.

Produced by the Wales Theatre Company, it is directed by Michael Bogdanov, best remembered for his work here with the English Shakespeare Company which he set up 20 years ago with Michael Pennington.

This adaptation of The Thorn Birds runs at the Theatre Royal next week from Tuesday to Saturday, June 16 to 20.