The Wayhill Brothers

Although a work of fiction, many of the events and characters featured within Tempus Cross link back to real people, actual places and historical news articles I have read over the years. Hawkins Bridge was inspired by two very different bridges I have set foot (or wheels) upon, one of which is located not in Somerset, but Devon - an attractive stone structure for which driving across requires a sharp left turn and then an equally tight right turn at the far end. Just yards away sits an isolated white-walled cottage - my Hawkins Cottages. I’ve driven across this bridge on several occasions, noting the narrowness of the road. I'm sure when it was designed many years before, there was no thought given to the multiple vehicles which would cross over with the increasing number of cars and lorries during the latter decades of the 20th century.

Like many of the locations in the book (as with the town of Tempus Cross, itself), I’ve not revealed the true location of 'my' Hawkins Bridge, but maybe some people could have a good guess.

For the deaths of Isaac and Baz Wayhill, I took inspiration from a very different bridge; The Golden Gate in San Francisco, which I visited with my wife, Laura, in 2019 - just a couple of months before the Covid lockdown.

I have to confess, I’ve always been a bit of a bridge ‘nerd’, fascinated at the sheer size and engineering ingenuity of some of these structures. I remember being teased by my family when I received a ‘Bridges of the World’ book one Christmas - but then found them all casually leafing through the pictures inside!

When Laura and I were in San Francisco, one of my goals had been to run across The Golden Gate, which I managed to achieve one afternoon (hastily changing into my running kit in a small enclosure beneath the bridge). I ran through the crowds from one end to the other, and then back again (just over three miles, I think) whilst Laura took in the views of the San Francisco waterside and Alcatraz Prison.

Learning about the construction of The Golden Gate, I recalled our tour guide mentioning the eleven men who lost their lives whilst it was being built, some falling over 200 feet into the water below (although I think some only fell from one level to another). The Wayhill brothers’ drop from Hawkins Bridge in the 1930’s would be far shorter, but I still needed them not to survive - hence, I cruelly dumped a mass of stone blocks onto the two men's heads as they flailed in the water below.

With regard to the brothers' surname, I knew it wouldn’t take long for a few people to recognise the combination of my wife’s maiden name, Wayling, and my surname. As for 'Baz', just that simple three letter shortened-name unintentionally opened the door for some amusing dialogue between Bertie Harris and Kurt Zeigler as they whiled away the hours in the early chapters, Kurt seemingly distracted for far too long by what 'Baz' could be short for.

The plaque bearing the dead men's names crops up several times throughout the book, especially in chapter 15 when Thomas Wheeler plants his motorcycle into the bridge wall, making a nice dent in the little brass plate.

And so, plenty of material for a thread to run through the book, a touch of myth surrounding the deaths and, of course, the Wayhill family taking their revenge on the man held responsible for the accident. In conclusion - yes, I do love a bridge!

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