There is no better time to watch the moving TV drama One Day on Netflix - and read the novel it is based on.
David Nicholls' romantic tale about two Edinburgh University students was first published in 2009 and the following year won plenty of literary prizes.
It tells the love story of Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew and their on-off relationship, seen through the perspective of St Swithin's Day - or very close to it - across the years. St Swithin's Day is on July 15.
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The novel has been transformed into a stunning Netflix series starring Ambika Mod as Emma Morley and Leo Woodall as Dexter Mayhew.
Not long after the novel was published in 2009, the Oxford Mail realised the story's popular appeal and in 2010 we named it our novel of the year in partnership with the city's Waterstones store.
Mr Nicholls' novel was to win much bigger prizes, but he agreed to make the trip to Oxford to accept his trophy.
Here is our conversation from 2010 when Mr Nicholls was 43 and living in London with his partner Hannah and their two children.
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Mr Nicholls, an accomplished screenwriter, penned the screenplay for the film of the book starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, and was delighted to see members of the cast reading copies of the novel on set.
During his visit he told us: "If you get a hit like this you have to make the most of it but you’ve got to accept that it will not happen again – it’s hard not to get panicky about the follow-up,” he admits.
“If you set out to repeat the success, you could be doomed to failure. I don’t know yet what my next novel will be about but it won’t be another love story.”
One Day tells the story of Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew, two under-graduates who meet just as they are about to leave Edinburgh University in 1988.
The novel then revisits Emma and Dexter on St Swithin’s Day over the next 20 years until the story’s startling conclusion.
The novel is packed with reminders of Britain in the late eighties and early 1990s but it is not simply a nostalgia-fest for those who graduated around the same time.
“Bittersweet is a key word for the story,” the author said in 2010.
“At times it is fond and nostalgic and at other times it is more melancholy and sad.
“It’s a novel about what might have been, and the mistakes and the choices we are forced to make.
“I remember having a conversation myself at university about where you imagine yourself at 40 and it never ends up like you predicted it. Regret is a central part of growing old.”
What Mr Nicholls wanted to avoid was One Day creating a stumbling block in his writing career.
“I would like to have a long career and I don’t want this to be a huge anti-climax,” he said at the time.
According to folklore, if it rains on St Swithin's Day, it will rain for 40 days, but if the weather is good, 40 days of good weather will follow.
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About the author
Andy is the Trade and Tourism reporter for the Oxford Mail and you can sign up to his newsletters for free here.
He joined the team more than 20 years ago and he covers community news across Oxfordshire.
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