Forgetting The Graduate

The troubled young man, played by Dustin Hoffman, had stormed his girlfriend's wedding before the pair fled from the church in the back of a bus.

The story of how Braddock was seduced by Mrs Robinson before falling for her daughter is now enjoying a revival in the West End where Jerry Hall has taken on the role of the amorous older woman.

But fans of the story, which made Mrs Robinson a household name, may be surprised to know that, if a sequel was ever made, it would be set not in California but in the somewhat less glitzy streets of Newhaven.

For Charles Webb, who wrote the semi-autobiographical book in 1962, moved to the town a year ago and now lives in a flat in the town centre with his ex-wife Fred.

The couple left America last August after becoming disillusioned with the country and in a bid to make a fresh start. They picked Newhaven as their new home because of its friendly residents.

Charles said: "It's a very nice place and a very nice town. We like the people very much and they are the nicest we have ever met. We couldn't have found a more perfect place to live."

Charles, who is now 61, wrote The Graduate partly as a protest against America's obsession with money and materialism.

He said: "After finishing college, I felt largely the way Benjamin Braddock felt about life in general and it just seemed like something that needed to be put into some fictional form."

Charles sold the film rights to the book shortly after it was published, but he is not angry that he has seen little of the millions it has made.

He said Benjamin Braddock's cynicism of America's consumer society reflected his own.

Fred, 60, said: "The film was excellent and very well acted, but the emphasis seemed to be totally on the affair and not the wider picture. The same is true of the play, although perhaps to a lesser extent."

Since Hollywood director Mike Nichols made The Graduate, the couple have embarked on a 33-year odyssey which has included a three-year stay in an American motel, a year at a French nudist colony, and finally to their rented flat in Newhaven.

During their travels, they twice decided to buy houses but gave both away - one to an estate agent's daughter in 1967 and the second to a wildlife trust two years later. The couple divorced in 1982 because of, as Fred put it: "Irreconcilable differences with the concept of marriage."

Fred said: "We came over here to make a fresh start and then The Graduate was playing in the West End."

Part of the reason they moved to England was to help them complete a new book, New Cardiff, which Charles has written and Fred has illustrated.

The novel, which will be published next year, is about a British artist who is dumped by his girlfriend and goes to the fictitious town in America where he meets and falls in love with another woman.

Charles and Fred are keen to leave Benjamin Braddock and Mrs Robinson behind and get on with new projects. But pushed on what fate could have befallen the awkward lothario, Charles smiled and said: "Benjamin Braddock would definitely be living in Newhaven.

"He would have fallen in love with the town, as would have Elaine, and they would shop at Sainsbury's - that would be their one indulgence."