Upcoming release: Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig

There's apparently big money in the publishing world at the moment in producing books that are spin-offs from the classics. For example, there are numerous examples of books that follow on from where Pride and Prejudice ended. Some of these books have been well received, and others not so!

The estate of Margaret Mitchell has already endorsed one spin-off from the classic Gone With the Wind, and now there is another. The first sequel was Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley, and followed the life of Scarlett O'Hara after Gone With the Wind had ended, and she found herself in new circumstances again. It's pretty hard to find many people who read Scarlett and liked it, so it is kind of interesting that the executors decided to take another chance. Maybe they figured enough time had elapsed!

This time, instead of focusing on Scarlett, the deliciously devilish Rhett Butler is the focus. We learn more about his family, his life prior to his first meeting with Scarlett at the barbecue at Twelve Trees, and his side of the story as he courts her.

Fully authorized by the Margaret Mitchell estate, Rhett Butler’s People is the astonishing and long-awaited novel that parallels the Great American Novel, Gone With The Wind. Twelve years in the making, the publication of Rhett Butler’s People marks a major and historic cultural event.

Through the storytelling mastery of award-winning writer Donald McCaig, the life and times of the dashing Rhett Butler unfolds. Through Rhett’s eyes we meet the people who shaped his larger than life personality as it sprang from Margaret Mitchell’s unforgettable pages: Langston Butler, Rhett’s unyielding father; Rosemary his steadfast sister; Tunis Bonneau, Rhett’s best friend and a onetime slave; Belle Watling, the woman for whom Rhett cared long before he met Scarlett O’Hara at Twelve Oaks Plantation, on the fateful eve of the Civil War.

Of course there is Scarlett. Katie Scarlett O’Hara, the headstrong, passionate woman whose life is inextricably entwined with Rhett’s: more like him than she cares to admit; more in love with him than she’ll ever know…

Brought to vivid and authentic life by the hand of a master, Rhett Butler’s People fulfills the dreams of those whose imaginations have been indelibly marked by Gone With The Wind.

I haven't read any of Donald McCaig's other novels, so I have no idea if I am going to like him or not, but I will give this one a go...but I'll be borrowing it from the library! Anyone else going to give it a go?

Rhett Butler's People is released in the US on 6 November.