In my research into the specifics of Brighton in 1957, I kept coming across references to milk.

Having grown up with the slogan “Drinka Pinta Milka Day”, I had never stepped back sufficiently to see what an extraordinary injunction that was. But now I did, and I thought it was dead odd. Milk promotion was at its height in 1957, with milk parades, milk bars, milk shakes, dairy queens and so on. In the summer of that year, a herd of cows really did live for a while in Brighton’s Pavilion Gardens as a publicity stunt. There really was a very famous young woman called The Milk Girl, who made flying visits all over the country. The idea of someone killing people with milk bottles (but who, and why?) just seemed right in this highly milky context.

I loved writing this novel, and in particularly researching the character of Cedric Carbody, a sort-of evil twin of the adorable Arthur Marshall.