Writer and acclaimed writing coach Helen Brain’s dystopian series, THE FIERY SPIRAL, has been optioned for screen adaptation by DG Pictures.

Veteran South African producer Dumi Gumbi of DG Pic­tures says: ‘I absolutely love it. I think it’s a wonderful story, with a diverse cast of characters, and set in an amazing world that is a paral­lel or alternative reality, but also very recog­nisable Cape Town. So it allows us to draw on many of the richness of our country and heritage, but it’s an alternative history.’

THE FIERY SPIRAL tells the story of 16-year-old Ebba van Eeden who has never known life outside the underground bunker known as the Colony. When she is suddenly ‘elevated’, she must leave everyone she has ever known and join the elite on the surface. Why has she been elevated, and who is the mys­terious great aunt who has left her a fortune? As the last remaining genetic link to the earth Goddess Gya, Ebba is the only person who can retrieve the six missing amulets which will restore the Goddess’ power, and turn back the God Prospero, whose greed and vengeance have almost destroyed Earth.

Helen Brain lives in Cape Town and has written over 50 books for children. She is also a much-admired teacher of creative writing.

I absolutely love it. I think it’s a wonderful story, with a diverse cast of characters, and set in an amazing world that is a paral­lel or alternative reality, but also very recog­nisable Cape Town.

Dumi Gumbi, DG Pic­tures