I first thought of the idea for THE CHILDREN in 1995, but it took me almost four years to begin to write it. On the face of it, given my interests and background, it would seem inevitable that I would write something involving a contemporary or at least near-future - in the case of THE CHILDREN, uncomfortably near - military unit, however I admit to being somewhat daunted by the prospect of a novel set firmly in the real-world, given that my last three novels (WILD TUNDRA, MUSCLE and KINGDOMS OF CLAY) had all been set in fantastical or far-future worlds. I cannot say that it was a comfortable experience to write - for me, novels rarely are - but having completed it earlier this year, after 2 years or more of work, I am less daunted by the prospect of writing contemporary fiction.

The influences in THE CHILDREN are manyfold. In its original idea, it was a straightforward transposition of the Waco siege onto a British stage combined with a supernatural storyline, but this element - while still evident in the end result - became less blatant as the story progressed. Those who have read the novel have described it as "Tom Clancy meets Clive Barker", a marriage made in Heaven or Hell depending on your literary tastes! Certainly, it crosses genres as does much of my fiction, one of the reasons, I have always felt, that I have never attained much in the way of commercial success, publishers these days like to pigeonhole and categorise - maybe you will believe I have not been successful for other reasons!

I hope you will read THE CHILDREN and write to me and tell me if you enjoyed it or not. I have placed it on the web in its present form to invoke criticism and comment - I would, if I had the luxury of more time, complete more revision work on it, certainly this would be the case if I had a genuine offer of publication. While some would criticise this decision itself, I think that the book is readable and enjoyable in its present form and I unleash it here in an attempt to prevent the last 2 years being a wasted effort, to stop the book ending up as another wadge of neat paper on my shelf. Given its subject matter of terrorism, I am also conscious of the events of Sep 11 and if I leave it any longer, I could face accusations of 'cashing in'. It is presented here, then, written before the day the world changed, and with a plea that if you read the third of the book and request the zip file of the whole text, that you will a) write and let me know what you think of it and b) make a donation to the American Red Cross or an Afghan-based aid agency or any other worthy charity connected with the current crisis, the choice is yours based on your own preferences.

Thank you for listening

Noel K Hannan

Crewe October 18^th 2001

Footnote September 2005

The Children is now available as a printed book, with extensive revisions and a painted cover by Rik Rawling, at http://www.cafepress.com/nkh

Request The Children complete text as zip file.