I set Too Long To Die at 30,000 years ago, during Aurignacian period of the Upper Paleolithic. This stretched roughly from 34,000 to 23,000 years ago. It was a fascinating period when, suddenly, there seemed to be many innovative changes taking place. Weapons became much more sophisticated with advancements in stone knapping and the bow and arrow appeared for the first time. On a lighter note, painting, sculpture and music developed which may well have been used in religious rituals for the first time.

I felt that this was the time when early humans started to enrich their lives. Of course, survival in a harsh world was still priority but a sense of fun and enjoyment was emerging.  So I had to make their lives just a little bit more dangerous! 

Why did I write Too Long to Die? Good question. Stubbornness, I suppose. At school, eons ago, I was always told that I could write well enough but had no imagination. Then I heard the advice we have all been given: write what you know about. So I sat down to write something that fascinated me but about which I knew very little and nearly all of it came from my imagination.

I have always wondered what it would be like to live in a world where everything you used and ate came straight from Nature, where nothing was pre-fabricated. Nothing would be easy. Would we survive today if we had to revert? I think the answer is that most of us would not.