The novel is set in Brighton in 2003, around the time the West Pier was destroyed by fire.
They fly over the boy's town, over houses and large public buildings before flying past the Royal Pavilion in Brighton and West Pier and then out into the ocean.
The Pier can be seen as it was in the early 1970's in Carry On Girls which was filmed on the Pier and in locations nearby in Brighton.
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On 26 November 1944 a Royal Air Force Hawker Typhoon single-engined monoplane fighter hit the pier and then crashed onto the beach.
West Germany | West Bengal | West Virginia | West Indies | West End | West Yorkshire | Kanye West | West End theatre | The West Wing | West | West Midlands | West Bank | West Point | West Side Story | West Java | West Africa | West Berlin | West Sussex | Pier Paolo Pasolini | Key West | Mae West | West Coast | West Riding of Yorkshire | West Coast Main Line | Halifax, West Yorkshire | West Bromwich Albion F.C. | West Texas | West Ham United F.C. | West Indies cricket team | West Indian |
It was designed by Eugenius Birch, who also designed the West Pier, Brighton and Eastbourne Pier, both west of Hastings, and it is often seen as an innovative design considering the technical constraints of the late-Victorian period.
Most of the settings in the novel are real places in Brighton and Eastbourne including: the West Pier and the Palace Pier, West Street, North Street and East Street (the stationers Marianne visits on East Street is most likely based on a shop called Beals which was later converted into a clothes shop), Brighton Station, Beachy Head and Belle Tout lighthouse.
Two piers, Brighton's now derelict West Pier and Clevedon Pier, were Grade 1 listed:Brighton West lost its status after a series of fires and storms.
The seaside theatre in the film was the Pavilion Theatre, now known as the Brighton Dome Studio Theatre, on West Pier in Brighton, England.