The Lady Mayor of New Canberra is going to put readers in mind of two obvious cultural references. The first is Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter book/film Order of the Phoenix. Madam Umbridge issued edicts that changed life in Hogwarts so much for the worse that life became unbearable. Likewise, Madam Waterson made life in New Canberra unbearable. The same Potter story also had the Room of Requirements which could be anything you wanted it to be. The in potentia room in Chrístõ’s TARDIS was obviously providing the same service here.

The other reference is a Doctor Who one. In Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords, Mr Saxon used mass hypnosis to get elected. Madam Waterson did something similar. There is even a scene that is very similar. In Sound of Drums The Doctor asks Jack and Martha what Saxons policies were and neither could remember. Here, Chrístõ asks Marianna and she can’t remember why she thought Madam Waterson would be a good Mayor.

Will anyone believe me when I say I didn’t think about either of those references when writing this story? I imagine not. But it is true. It was only later when I read it back that I realised there were some similarities. Ideas become sublimated into the head. Scenarios come up again and again. “Can you remember the policies you voted for” in any case is a bit of political irony. Can anyone remember why, in 1979, Margaret Thatcher’s ideas sounded good? Can anyone even remember why Tony Blair seemed to have the right idea in 1997? That’s the way of politics. Russell T. Davies obviously thought the same thing when he wrote the election of Mr Saxon into Doctor Who legend.

As for Mrs Waterson and Miss Umbridge, both are amateurs compared to the headmistress at my boarding school in the 1970s. Picture a sort of Margaret Thatcher clone, who at various times came up with these rules:

No bath shall be filled more than five inches deep – and lines were painted on the baths to let us know when it was full.

Locks to be removed from bathroom and toilet doors to prevent students from having privacy in either.  

Portions to be cut at meal times to prevent waste of food.

Compulsory giving up of puddings or tea or both during Lent.

Friendships between students of different years to be disallowed.

All student mail to be opened by staff and checked for money or postal orders.

Regular room searches for banned items such as radios, personal stereos, hairdryers, teenage magazines.

There, you see, is the real inspiration behind Madam Waterson. I half suspected that she was the inspiration behind Miss Umbridge, too, but as far as I know JK Rowling went to a different school to me. But a dislike of unreasonable rules seems to be the one thing we have in common.

The idea of a woman like that running for mayor, and the billboards being the source of her hypnotic power came from a quite mundane source. I saw a bus pass me on Fishergate which had come in from Leyland. On the back was a campaign poster for somebody running for either mayor or member of parliament for Leyland, I forget which. He was probably a perfectly nice man who wanted the best for Leyland, but there was something about the way the poster was designed that made me think about hypnotic billboards and posters that would influence people.

As with Chrístõ’s Chrysalids, there was a piece on the end of this story which I have removed. Again, it involved a sinister person keeping an eye on the students and biding their time before revealing the true purpose of the Advanced Needs Class. I had decided there was no need for that. I may well write a story in which somebody tries to use the students for some purpose, but I don’t think it needs to be seeded in that way.