It fascinates me how quickly yesterday's hi-tech gadgets become today's commonplace utilities! Since the dawn of SciFi, heroes have been equipped with amazing communications devices that can be carried (or worn) easily and discreetly. Dick Tracy's radio-watch, in its time, must have seemed so cool. Now every kid over the age of eight has a mobile phone the size of a credit card, most of which also take photos and store music. We're living in the future, people!

In case you can't read the sign, the pub in this scene is called the Dread Nought, after the class of battleship which was once the very embodiment of Britain's naval supremacy. During the planning stage, one of the many heroes lined up for possible inclusion in Shades was called Dreadnought. I felt a story about Britain ought to have a naval-themed hero in it somewhere. Eventually, he hit the pile of discarded ideas but the name lingered for some time after as one of many possible titles for this project. Finally, that too was discarded and, rather than lose the name all together, I used it for the pub. I suppose that's the literary equivalent of recycling!