A MISADVENTURE GALLERY By Touch the Light Here are some images that inspired many of the places described in the story 'Death By Misadventure'. None of them are my property.

The fictional towns of Northcroft-on-Heugh and New Stranton are based on Hartlepool headland and the former West Hartlepool (the two amalgamated in 1967).

Map showing the location of Hartlepool, Durham and Hexham.
There's no scale, but the distance between Hartlepool and Durham is 18 miles.

Hartlepool headland from the air, looking south east.
On some Ordnance Survey maps it's shown as 'Croft-on-Heugh', though I've never heard anyone use that name.
The Heugh breakwater is at the very top of the photograph. The open space just below and to the left is the Town Moor.

The 'old' cemetery, not a tree or a bush to be seen.
If you look carefully, you can just see the North Sands to the right.

This is what happens at high tide when the wind's coming straight off the sea.

The Heugh breakwater in more tranquil weather.

The war memorial and Radcliffe Terrace.
Although it doesn't bear all that close a resemblance to Neptune's Triangle, this was the place that inspired it.

Durham Cathedral - of 'Harry Potter' fame, and more besides I'm told.

St Peter's Church, Bywell, Northumberland.
The nearest place to Bywell on the map is Corbridge.

The church with the witch's hat.
Christ Church, now an art gallery, in the part of Hartlepool that was known as 'West Hartlepool' until 1967 - and as New Stranton in the 1840s.

The boulevard that should reach the sea but doesn't.
The view from the top of the church tower looking east, taken around 1970.
Don't laugh, this is where I grew up! (I like it so much I live in Sunderland now.)

No reference to Hartlepool would be complete without the monkey story.
Legend has it that during the Napoleonic wars the townsfolk came across a shipwrecked monkey. Having been told that all Frenchmen went about unshaven and jabbered like apes, they assumed it was a spy and hung it.
(By the way, I am not a monkey hanger. It was the cod 'eads that did it, not us from Wagga.)

Hartlepudlians may have hung one monkey, but they made up for it by electing another one as Mayor.
Stuart Drummond, one-time mascot for Hartlepool United Football Club (the name H'Angus is typical Hartlepool humour, impenetrable to outsiders) began his campaign by demanding free bananas for all schoolchildren. I should add that after being elected he took his civic duties very seriously indeed.

There'll be more images of Hartlepool headland after part 5 of the story arc 'The Infection Vector' has been uploaded.