Fiction
Greater Manchester Police Headquarters
There’s a Police station not far from Burton Road, but I decided that the Serious Crimes squad would be based in the GMP headquarters. So I took a bike ride out there, to get a picture.
The North Manchester Police headquarters is just across the road- to the right of this photo, in a smaller, but similar looking, building. I wonder if there’s any rivalry between the two blocks?
I only took this photo, and didn’t have a wander around to get a closer look at the layout of the site, because I was nervous about explaining what I’m writing. If enough of you buy the book, I can use its best seller status as a way to talk them into giving me a tour.
Burton Road
The death in A Death In Didsbury happens on Burton Road. Maybe this part, maybe further up, I’m deliberately vague about the precise location of On The Wall.
Burton Road has changed a fair bit since I first lived in the area, undergoing a sort of hipster gentrification. I miss the family butchers and the lovely deli that used to be there. The Canadian Charcoal Pit is a bit of a throwback, and looks out of place in the road’s new style.
Mild Spoilers
The news that a Russian journalist wasn’t actually shot dead in the Ukraine, but was actually in on a sting against his would be assassins, is one of those cases of real life reading like spy fiction.
It’s also yet another example of how I’ve managed to put particularly relevant plot points into A Death In Didsbury. Without giving too much away, there may be some parallels between the story of Arkady Babchenko, and the truth behind the death in my work in progress.
Every few days, there seems to be a news item that suggests my current project isn’t so much ‘plucked from the headlines’ as predicting them.