Quote
This is another quote from the "Bollo" episode of The Mighty Boosh, said to Howard/Julian in an attempt to comfort him when he reaches Limbo by Phil the Reaper, played by Noel.

Song
Julian thinks of the 1966 Rolling Stones' song, "19th Nervous Breakdown" when he learns his most recent life was his nineteenth. I'd like to say I had the clever idea of making the number nineteen because of the song, but the number came first, then the song reference.

https://youtu.be/aCmxWu2yT8c

Mary as a Healer
Mary, with some distaste, tells Julian that the Head Healer has decreed that even though he is still feeling fatigued and unwell, it would be best for him to lead "a normal Afterlife" in order to recover. Is there anyone with a chronic untreatable health condition who hasn't been given the glib, useless advice to "just go out and lead a normal life" at some point?

The World of the Waystation

The Setting
The Houses of Healing are in a rural area with woods and fields. I live in a country town surrounded by farms and bushland, with doves cooing from the back yard, so this peaceful setting seemed very familiar to me. I gave The Waystation the same mild, sunny, pleasant climate as my home.

Clothes
Julian arrives at the Waystation in the clothes he was wearing on the night Phil transported him to the Afterlife. There is a tradition of depicting souls wearing the clothes they died/were buried in, and it saves the awkwardness of everyone being nude until they are given clothes.

Julian is given new clothes which fit him perfectly. In real life, his height, build, and posture do seem to make the clothes he wears not look exactly right, so this was my chance to give him a great wardrobe. Julian is actually a bit of a naturist in real life, and I think he would have been completely happy to wander about the Waystation stark naked for the whole story!

Shepherd's Wood
I combined the London suburbs of Shepherd's Bush and St John's Wood into something that seemed both rural and vaguely religious. I found out later there is a wood of this name in Yorkshire.

The Wayfarer's Arms
I sent Julian to a country inn because he seems like he would enjoy this. He was very keen on the idea of writing stage shows for The Mighty Boosh in a country cottage with Noel, which I don't think ever happened, although fanfiction has run with the idea pretty often.

I had a lot of fun reading travel articles in posh magazines with titles like, "The Most Enchanting Country Inns in the Cotswolds", to get ideas for The Wayfarer's Arms. I found out later there is a pub called The Wayfarer's Arms in Devon. Apparently I can't invent anything original.

Food
The delicious food provided at the Waystation comes straight from the film Defending Your Life, where you can eat as much as you like and it all tastes wonderful. There is precedent for the dead eating – there is food in Hades in Greek mythology, and they do nothing but feast and drink in Valhalla.

Numbers
The numbers in the story often have numerological significance.

6
The number of lives Marcus had. In numerology, 6 is ruled by Venus, and is a fortunate number of love and harmony. Its tarot card is The Lovers – no wonder Marcus found his soulmate so easily, and has such love for humanity that he cannot be content knowing others need his help.

19
The number of lives Julian has had. In numerology, 19 is The Prince of Heaven. It has a protective influence, meaning that things will work out in the end. The nineteenth tarot card is The Sun, promising hope for the future.

33
The room number of the inn where Julian is staying. In numerology, 33 is a Master Number called The Goddess of the Earth. It promises material comfort, love, and spiritual attainment with the help of women. Its tarot card is the Queen of Pentacles, showing a lady living in luxury on a secluded country estate. It seemed suitable for a cosy country inn. I got 33 by adding together all the numbers in Julian's complete name, so this is Julian's own number.

The Structure of the Afterlife

The Waystation
Everyone who lives and works at the Waystation is a human soul who has gone Forward, and spent some time in study, before volunteering to return and help new arrivals. This is a vocation willingly and joyfully embraced, and part of their experience of living Forward.

Sideways
If a person is sent Sideways after their assessment, they get there by catching a bus from the bus station near the inn. (There is a hierarchy of transportation in the Afterlife). The seven bus stops within Sideways are inspired by the seven terraces of Purgatory in Dante's Divine Comedy. In the poem, these correspond to the Seven Deadly Sins, but Sideways doesn't use the word sin. It seems likely your bus ticket will correspond to whichever area you most need to work on before you can go Forward.

Back to Earth
If a person is assessed as needing to go Back to Earth for another life, they return to their accommodation and "die in reverse" by falling asleep. The soul enters the womb of a woman just about to give birth, and the cycle begins again. The person's memory of their previous life and the Waystation will be wiped, although their soul will remember. This is more or less the esoteric view of reincarnation.

Forward
Every soul will eventually go Forward, no matter how many lives it takes, or how many years they spend Sideways.

Afterlife Insights

People's Appearance
The Bible says that our earthly bodies will be transformed into something "glorious" and "heavenly" (Philippians 3:21, Corinthians 2:5). This is usually assumed to mean we will look perfect and beautiful.

I didn't like the idea of everyone looking like a supermodel after going Forward, and I'm not convinced that's what St Paul meant, either. So I've tried to show a variety of different types of beauty in the Afterlife, with people who were attractive on Earth given a really lovely appearance, but even ordinary looking people having their inner beauty made visible and obvious.

Soulmates
Marcus tells Julian that each person has a soulmate, and this is usually someone already known to them, but people can only recognise their soulmate after they both go Forward. Marcus suggests that this discovery is usually a surprise, and that most people do not marry or form a life partnership with their soulmate on Earth.

Marcus gave as an example of a "surprise soulmate", a doctor who saved your life. I imagined that Mary was the doctor who saved Marcus' life, or perhaps tried to save it. As this was hundreds of years ago, they would have both have been men in that life for Mary to be a doctor. She went Forward after a lifetime as a woman, but her gift of healing stayed with her.

I have some real problems with the concept of soulmates, and it made more sense to me that as a soulmate is a spiritual bond, they would only be something for the Afterlife. Marcus says that a soulmate is not an Afterlife husband or wife, because the Bible says, "for in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage" (Matthew 22:30).

Once they have gone Forward, soulmates have a strong preference to remain close to one another if possible. We learn that Marcus and Mary are soulmates, and so are Colin and Pauline. Chances are, most people at the Waystation are there with their soulmate, or are still waiting for their soulmate to go Forward.

Characters

Colin
Colin, the concierge at The Wayfarer's Arms, is based on Colin the Reaper in the "Bollo" episode of The Mighty Boosh. He is the radio dispatcher for the Death Cab company in Limbo, played by American comedian Rich Fulcher (he gives the Cockney accent a red hot go).

I feel as if the two main Reapers are called Phil and Colin as a reference to Phil Collins, the drummer and singer for rock band Genesis, later a solo artist. Colin at the inn is much nicer than Colin the Reaper, but I have retained a faint trace of Rich Fulcher's teasing manner for him.

Pauline
In The Mighty Boosh, Colin's wife, although never seen, is referred to as Pauline. In the story, she is his soulmate.

Marcus Hoffman
Marcus came to the Afterlife about 300 years ago, so at the end of the 17th century. He was a professor of Philosophy in Prague, which was then in Bohemia, part of the Austrian Empire. This justifies Marcus' German surname, although people flocked to the city from all over Europe. In my mind, Marcus was Jewish in his last life, and probably an atheist or humanist. Marcus specialised in natural law and metaphysics, making him a great fit for a Case Worker.

Marcus didn't go Forward straight away, but spent some time Sideways, as he needed to be humbled – I imagined that his academic background had made him quite intellectually arrogant (pride is said to be the worst fault of all). His love of learning kept him studying and teaching Forward for many years, before he volunteered to return to the Waystation to help others. He drowned in a boating accident because Marcus Hoffman in The Mighty Boosh designed speedboats.

Write What You Know
Marcus tells Julian that after going Forward, he spent many years studying and teaching in the Halls of Learning. This was inspired by an extremely vivid dream of Heaven my husband had, that he was in a place rather like a classical Greek temple, set on a high mountain surrounded by breathtaking views. Everyone wore white robes, and it was a serene, joyful community devoted to knowledge of all kinds.

My husband isn't religious, and doesn't think of himself as a spiritual person, but he found this very comforting. I imagined the Halls of Learning as being rather like his dream.