I greatly enjoy reading your books and have just re-read The Burning Land. Your mention of Thundersley in the Historical Note prompts me to say that I went to Chalkwell Hall School and to Westcliff High School.As an 11 year old I enjoyed messing about in our 12ft clinker dinghy with its centreboard around Canvey Island.Misjudging the time led to long muddy walks ashore followed by a return at sparrowrise to float off on the rising tide.All these memories make me wonder whether the hill which in the 1200s became the site for Hadleigh Castle would have figured in the approach to South Benfleet. Purely as a matter of interest I am now 85 and still going strong after a long Service life in India and Burma followed by forty years or so teaching English, Latin, Spanish French and Japanese.After 21 years in New Zealand I now live in this coastal paradise in Queensland, Australia
My best wishes
Sincerely
Jack Riley