I really enjoyed destroying the Lethbridge-Stewarts' marriage. I just enjoyed writing what I like to think is a good bit of real-life drama without spaceships and rayguns, and kept visualising this scene as if it’d been done on telly.

I’m amazed Alistair and Fiona’s relationship got this far – I’m always surprised at how well people do cope when they can’t discuss their careers with their families because they’ve signed the official secrets act, or there’s doctor/patient confidentiality for instance.

The Saracen’s Head is or was anyway a real restaurant in Beaconsfield Old Town which we visited once or twice. Great food. The Captain Walters mentioned here was clearly Sergeant Walters from The Invasion. He’s been promoted. Well done to him.

Now I won’t take the blame for this one – this is a bit of bad copyediting by someone at Virgin. It wasn’t like this when I wrote it. I know, and I’m fairly certain that the Brigadier would know that whilst Smallmarshes and Dungeness are in Kent, Hastings is in Sussex. Grrr…

Ooh, I like the ending here. It’s the scene portrayed on Andrew Skilleter’s book cover, featuring the hologram of Marc Marshall in the Silurian’s hand. I was very keen to ensure that the cover Andrew did represented a scene rather than served as just an impression of the story.