Background to the story

Outside the White Lines

The idea for this novel came to me one Christmas when, driving home to my mum’s with my wife and newborn baby, our car broke down not once, not twice, but three times.

By the third time it was the early hours of the morning and the motorway was pretty much deserted as we waited on the hard shoulder. Eventually a white van with a flashing light pulled up behind us and I nearly started to get out of the car. But the way the driver and his passenger were just sitting there staring at our vehicle suddenly made me uneasy - and I realised how vulnerable we were.

After a couple of minutes of nobody moving, the van doors opened and the two occupants climbed out. To my relief, they began sweeping up some debris from a previous crash that happened to be behind our car. When they eventually carried on their way, I saw that it was a motorway maintenance vehicle. But the fact that they could have had far more sinister intentions remained in my head.

The novel also arose from my own frustration at how crowded Britain’s roads are. Being delayed for hours has become a way of life for so many people who use their cars for work purposes. Quite often I listen to the traffic reports on the radio, shaking my head because the bulletins take so long to read, the background music runs out. Congestion is set to get even worse over the coming years. People no longer stop when the traffic lights turn orange. Everyone feels hemmed in by the sheer mass of cars surrounding them. Surely it’s only a matter of time before someone’s road rage tips them completely over the edge...