1. My pal Janie and I got a tour of Skibo Castle when we were on holiday. A big crowd of us were staying in a castle up in Dornoch and it was Janie’s birthday so we rocked up to Skibo and ask to see around, pretending to be millionaires looking for a holiday home. The butler gave us a really lovely tour of the house until the very end when Janie blurted ‘Did she get married in this actual room?’ He realized that we were talking about Madonna, immediately sensed how much we loved her and he asked us to leave the grounds.
2. The wreck dive video came from watching a real dive video on the internet in which the diver died. The narrator kept warning that he died at the end but I still watched on to the end and was very upset by it. I lied to myself in the same way that Anna does. To this day, I wish I hadn’t watched it.
3. Anna and Hamish’s house is a real house, originally owned by the shipping magnate William Burrell. A friend staged an art show in it four years ago when the roof was off and it was derelict. I loved it so much that I didn’t want to leave and had to pretend I was very very into the art show.
4. All the places they go to are places I’ve been on holiday in the past few years. It was lovely reliving those holidays.
5. Fat Stanley was a real British Bulldog who used to live in the apartment below us. He was a good boy. I think he was being used for breeding and he wasn’t very well looked after. We used to hear the owner shouting at him. We fell in love with him and later got our first dog because of him. Where ever you are: I love you Fat Stanley and you’re a good boy, a very good boy.
