This was before Covid Lockdown. I was looking online for a flat we could buy in Edinburgh. I’d finished looking for the houses we could afford, which didn’t take long. And then just out of morbid curiosity, I looked at houses which were well and truly out of our price range. Like the top of the range. There are some sites which specialize in those types of properties, so I had a look at those. And after checking out the places in Edinburgh that were over £5 million, I relaxed the geographic parameters of the search.

I found a lovely estate in Sussex for the bargain price of £10 million. Then I nstarted to think who would buy a place like that. Because if it was me, I would want to generate income from the estate. How would I go about that? What schemes would I be able to try if money was no object?

I’d heard of a German firm who were promoting fish farms in shipping containers. I spent way too much time researching that. An interesting diversion. When Ange saw the containers in the book she said that she wondered if they were going to feature more in the story. I told her no, that was just a red herring.

I’d also been following some drama which had been blowing up on YouTube with two competing firms who made survivalist bunkers in the States. They made the Tiger King and Carole Baskin seem like toddlers. Anyways, back in New Zealand the guys who created Mega Upload had been hiding in a very expensive house north of Auckland which had a panic room. When the FBI put enough pressure on the NZ Police so they did a raid on his house, he hid in the panic room and they didn’t find him. It made me think who would have a similar panic room/bunker in the UK? What possible reason could you have for something like that?

Someone who expected a visit from people meaning them harm, right? The most obvious would be people who had enemies who ignored the rule of law. Eastern European Oligarchs maybe?

So a lot of strands. How to bring them together? Well whatever happens, you’d need to hide in the bunker. The Hole.