I was inspired to write this after realising that at certain points in prehistory there might have been several distinctly different species of human being on the planet. Not only might Andy have met, fought and even tried to breed with Sebastian, but Flo, the “hobbit” would have been stalking pygmy hippos (or something) on her Indonesian island. Depending on who you believe, Ricky might still have been around too, and other members of the genus Homo would not have been too long vanished from the planet. So I thought it’d be fun to bring them altogether. Sort of.

I feel obliged to add the disclaimer: this is a work of fiction, not palaeo-anthropology. I tried to keep the fictional relationships in line with the real ones, but it’s a complicated business and I wouldn’t be surprised if I got it wrong in places…