Here's a few random facts:
- Tillly Pink's office in Edinburgh does exist as does the job she does.
- The job Peter Sparke does is carried out by a few hundred people in the world at his level. I met several of them when I lived in the USA-. Their ability to discuss heart-stopping scenarios in an offhand way is a bit terrifying.
Some things that happened in Sparke books that are based on reality:
- The oil rig that gets stuck under a bridge in Scotland really happened. Half of Glasgow took trips down the river to laugh at it.
- The scene where a drifting ship is targeted by a military jet with a missile is a genuine step in disaster management protocol in the North Sea.
- The war between the Greeks and Turks in "The Templar Key" took place pretty much as described in the book. The city of Smyrna suffered horribly when it fell to the Turkish forces, but both sides committed atrocities.
- Most readers probably know that the Templars had an incredible financial network, but not everyone is aware how "flat" their organisational structure was. One of Sparke's reasons for being interested in them is how modern their approach to organisations was.
- In one book he takes part in a very, very long helicopter flight supported by in-flight re-fuelling. A friend tells me that a Eurocopter NH-90 could do this but "it would be the worst experience in anyone's life"
- The battle between German and Royal Navy fleets in the depths of the South Atlantic is accurate. The image of two fleets of huge warships hammering after each other at full speed with nothing ahead of them except Antarctica is barely credible, but true.
One thing that is increasingly apparent when I research these books is just how much archive material is not available on line. Whole archives of material exist in paper format only.
I am taking a coffee break from the writing the next Sparke book. I t should be out by Easter. I am cheating a little by setting some of the action in Switzerland, where I live so research is more fun. There is a persistent set of legends and circumstantial evidence that the Templars had some hand in creating the country that grew into Switzerland so that is worth looking at.
Many thanks to the many of you who buy my books and give me such generous reviews. I see some of the same names coming up a lot and it is a bit frustrating not being able to talk back to you, but hey, such is la writers life.
Coffee's over, back to work.
Scott
