I’d always wanted to do a story about the origin of Smudge’s wall, but was never quite sure how to do it until the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings rolled around. I’d considered a story from World War 2 where the wall was all that was left of a bombed out cat shelter, but it would never coalesce into something tangible that could be told in six pages. I’d also wanted to do a 1066 story. The two dovetailed together quite nicely.

Feinites is the term school kids to the south of England use to say you give up, or want a truce in a game. Most dictionaries, however, spell it as Fainites. Time Out appears to be the equivalent in the States.