SERIES STATISTICS:
The first novel in the series ’Hainault’ made its first online appearance on the
Internet way back in approximately 1999 on a long since lost incarnation of the website.
As of early 2012, the series had reached seventeen episodes totalling over 1.3 million
words across 3,295 pages.
WARNING - THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!
TRIVIA:
- Early drafts of Hainault had an introductory chapter which featured a ceremony launching
the Department of National Security & Civil Defence, set some months before the Hainault
incident. This was originally intended to introduce the Security Department to the
reader. Later this awful introduction was replaced with a rather dire prologue (Viewable
in the Deleted Scenes section) which in turn was duly slung out in favour of explanatory
text incorporated within the opening sequence in Tracy Caverner's house.
- Hainault is the only novel in the series not to feature a major scene at the station
whose name it carries. Haychester does but it is in fact Chichester in West Sussex,
the City on which Haychester is based.
- Green Park was the original working title for what became Waterloo which also carried
the working title Westminster for a while. Green Park was used again as the working
title for the fourth novel in the series which became Moor Park.
- Early draft's of Holborn had the new Transport Division's headquarters based in the
office accommodation above Goodge Street station (hence the reference to '...not
Goodge Street...' from the Commander when he is being recruited to the position of
Divisional Commander) The location was changed to the Holborn offices when the author
saw them being built whilst on one of his many trips to the model shop a few doors
further up.
- The Haychester office building is in fact Chichester College of Arts, Science & Technology!
- The Holborn office building is in fact the home of the UK Government's Food Standards
Agency!
- Routemaster buses were in fact withdrawn from London's route 8 in 2003 but seem to
mysteriously continue in the Commander's universe, as do Southern/South Central's
slam door trains which were in fact all finally retired from regular service by the
end of August 2005. Westminster however is the first episode not to feature any
slam door train workings.
- There was a rough draft prequel to Hainault at one time set after the Hainault incident
but some years before the events of the first novel which featured the Commander
when he was a junior officer. The 'work in progress' was lost in a computer glitch
some years ago but some of the ideas did subsequently reappear in ‘Haychester’.
- Tracy's identical twin sister Jennifer only came about due to an error in a very
early version of Hainault that had Tracy in two places at once. The twin sister
idea subsequently was developed successfully.
- The entire Euston to Waterloo chase sequence in Waterloo was written in one afternoon
on the Eurostar (first class section) from Brussels to London. The seat and coach
number quoted is the seat I was sitting in at the time I wrote it!
- On a similar theme, the entire sequence from the British Museum to Charing Cross
in Holborn was written whilst waiting for a delayed train at Chesham on the Metropolitan
Line. The usually quiet Chesham station was subsequently used as a location in Moor
Park.
- Disused London Underground stations have always been a fascinating subject for the
author and several appear throughout the novels. 'Holborn' features British Museum
(Central Line) and Aldwych (Piccadilly) as well as disused parts of Holborn (Piccadilly
Line) and Charing Cross (Jubilee Line). 'Waterloo' features Brompton Road (Piccadilly
Line) and a disused part of Green Park. Moor Park passes through the former St.
Mary's station on the District Line and in Westminster and some subsequent novels,
the closed station at King William Street plays a pivotal part.
- Another closed railway station or rather the site of one appears in 'Haychester'
with the location of the former 'Roffey Road Halt' which was between Faygate and
Littlehaven on the Crawley to Horsham line appearing in one key scene.
- Moor Park is the first novel to feature a character uttering a strong expletive.
As Tracy was being shot at at the time, I think we can forgive her!
- What is the Commander's name? Well if truth be told, when writing Hainault, I could
not think of a suitable name so he simply became forever known as The Commander.
His name was however finally revealed in Earl's Court to be Edward James Regent,
a.k.a. Eddie Regent (Junior).
- A movie reference can be found in Moor Park. The Metropolitan Line train heading
to Chesham towards the beginning of the novel has the running code 'Chesham 123',
a reference to the excellent 1974 thriller The Taking of Pelham 123 about the kidnapping
and ransom of a New York Subway car and its passengers.
- Another movie reference occurs in 'Embankment' with the three Security Service Thames
River Division patrol vessels being named Esther, Ruth and Jennifer which are the
names of the the supply ship, drilling rig and production platform in the film North
Sea Hijack.
- Westminster is the first novel in the series not to feature Tracy riding a motorbike.
Instead she gets to drive one of the Department's Patrol Car's through the streets
of London, wrecking it as she goes. Then rather worryingly, the Commander lets
her loose with an articulated single deck bus!!
- The train mentioned by its number in Westminster, Southern Class 377/4 Electrostar
unit 377427 is a genuine train (Click here for a picture!) and can be found on Arun
Valley services from Victoria to and from Portsmouth Harbour and Bognor Regis as
depicted. Indeed the scene it appears in was written by the author while travelling
on that actual unit!
- Earl's Court is the first novel in the series not to have any scene set in or indeed
have any mention of London Victoria Station in it.
- Mention is made in passing in Earl's Court and more specifically in Lewisham to a
secret file regarding the Commander identified only by the number 9906753, this was
of course also the number of the crate in which the Ark of the Covenant was stored
at the end of the Indiana Jones film Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- Lewisham held the record for the longest episode in the series with 87,280 words
very briefly in 2007, however its reign was short lived as Epping beat it with 91,193
just a few months later. The shortest is Moor Park at a mere 46,473.
- Future titles considered for the series include 'Bethnal Green', 'Temple', 'Debden',
'Stratford' and 'Baker Street' with the last novel in the series whenever that happens
likely to be called 'Morden' as it is the end of the line (Northern in this case).
Titles ruled out and never likely to be used include 'Kings Cross', 'Canary Wharf'
and 'Russell Square' for various reasons.
- There was at one stage an alternative ending planned for 'Leytonstone' where rather
than recovering from her injuries, Tracy was actually going to pass away in the entrance
of the ticket hall of Leytonstone Underground Station. After a lot of thought however
I decided she was to live again for another day.
- Despite there being a long way to go for the series yet, the closing two scenes of
the penultimate episode of the series (probably to be called 'St James's Park' plus
the opening scenes of the very last episode (provisionally entitled 'Morden') are
already in existence although it will be a good few years before these are published.
The last two episodes are planned as a 'two parter' with the dramatic events at
the end of the first part taking leading straight into the opening scene of the next.
THINGS CHANGE....
People, places and things change over the years and some of the places that featured
in the series, particularly the earlier episodes are no exception. Gone now are
the Tesco's in East Street of Chichester/Haychester (Now an HMV!) the International
platforms and terminal at Waterloo is shut down and facing demolition since Eurostar
services transferred to St Pancras International, the Tesco's in Oxford Street went
a few years ago, the Routemaster buses have been reduced to a mere token service
for the tourists and even the Bendy Buses are on the way out.
GOOFS!!
- In Waterloo, Tracy goes clattering down the escalators to the Piccadilly Line platforms
at Gloucester Road - Slight problem, Gloucester Road's Piccadilly Line platforms
are only served by lifts!!
- In Moor Park, Roger Field reads a copy of that evenings edition of the London Evening
Standard newspaper which contains an article on Tracy and the Commander's wedding
earlier that day. The problem is that the wedding took place on a Saturday and the
Evening Standard is only printed on weekdays!
- Also in Moor Park, the section of line at Chalfont & Latimer that marks the beginning
of the Chesham Branch does not immediately curve off right as described, instead
it runs parallel to the Amersham Line for a short distance, thus it would have been
impossible for Robinson to observe the train curve off into the distance.
- In Victoria, for some reason Sir Richard Crowthorne was sitting in the pub having
a quiet drink with his opposite number from MI6 when he was renamed for one paragraph
only to Sir Richard Hawthorne! Editions subsequent to the publishing of Earl's Court
correct the error but had it not been for me looking up the name of the head of MI6
for a second appearance in Earl's Court, the mistake may have gone unnoticed forever!
- Lewisham has a slight problem with the train services shown as operating in 1969.
In the present day you can easily travel direct from Lewisham to London Victoria
but back then, Eddie Regent's journey would actually have been impossible as the
direct services all went to Charing Cross or the long since closed Holborn Viaduct.