The Proper Treatment of Bloodstains

Facts and Fictions

The Balfours’ house at 31 Heriot Row is mostly 3 Moray Place and some 5, 6 and 7 Charlotte Square, with just a hint of 29 Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin, which was where I first had the idea for this book.

The Balfour family is entirely fictitious, as is the account of their various banks, mansions, mines and oilfields around the world. I was, for once, following the good advice of Jim Hogg and ‘just making it up’.

The details of the strike are based on accounts in the TUC-produced Strike Bulletin and the one Edinburgh newspaper which was published during the nine days.

The miners’ village and colliery where Mattie’s family live and work, although imagined to be near Smeaton in Midlothian, are not based on any of the pits which made up the Lothian or Dalkeith Companies.