Now here's a story to make you go "See, see?" or "Poor Fellow" depending on your level of charity. Charles Webb was on top of the world after "The Graduate":

Webb, who has been living in Britain for six years, is hoping that a benefactor will offer somewhere for him and his partner - who changed her name to Fred as a gesture of solidarity with a men's support group - to stay while he tries to sort out a publishing deal for his latest novel, a sequel to The Graduate called Home School.

The book follows the adventures he and his partner had after removing their children from school. Home-schooling was illegal in California at the time, so they avoided the authorities by living in a succession of nudist camps.

Finding a publisher for this extraordinary story is proving to be fraught with difficulties. The film rights to the characters in The Graduate - and hence in Home School - are owned by the French media company, Canal Plus, a situation Webb is challenging in the French courts. And as if that weren't enough, he is also devoting much of his time to looking after Fred, who suffered a nervous breakdown five years ago and has been clinically depressed ever since.

(The Guardian Unlimited)