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- Referencenod to comics or other movies
- Cameoa familiar face shows up
- Setupplanted now, pays off later
- Behind the scenesproduction trivia
- Behind the scenesThe book that gave it shape
Follett read Eric Hobsbawm's The Age of Extremes. It gave him the idea of the 20th century as a period with a beginning and an end, and he could see the shape of his trilogy.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesIt happened, or it might have
Follett's rule: either the scene happened, or it might have. He cut scenes where a real figure was in another country at the time. Sir Edward Grey's speech in the Commons follows the parliamentary record, just shortened.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe miniseries that never aired
In December 2014, ABC announced a 10-hour miniseries based on this book, produced by Sony and written by Ann Peacock. If it rated well, the other two books would follow. It never made it to TV.
source ↗ - ReferenceIt opens on coronation day
The first chapter is set on 22 June 1911, the day George V was crowned at Westminster Abbey. That's the day 13-year-old Billy Williams first goes down the pit in Aberowen.
source ↗ - SetupWho the giants are
Follett explained the title: the giants that fall are the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and German empires and the tsarist regime. Notice how each family is tied to one of them.
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- Behind the scenesA plan with dates
By 2010 Follett had the plan: book two would open in Berlin in 1933, with Hitler's rise, and come out in 2012; book three in 2014. Both arrived on schedule.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesWhy it doesn't stop in 1945
Follett didn't want to end with the war. He said that would give a false suggestion that all problems were solved. So the story runs to 1949.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesExplaining the Nazis
Nobody thinks the Nazis were good, Follett said, but a novelist still has to explain why they succeeded. So the book shows the war from many nations' points of view, Britain's being only one.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesNo right length
About the near-thousand pages, Follett said there's no right length for a novel: it should go on as long as the story is good. He hopes readers finish thinking it should have been longer.
source ↗ - ReferenceThe next generation
Most of the leads are the children of Fall of Giants characters. Nearly every woman in the first book ends up with one or two kids, who hit their teens in the 1930s.
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- Behind the scenesHistory readers lived through
Follett said researching recent history is harder, because many readers remember those years and will spot any mistake.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesHow people crossed the Wall
In 2012, already preparing book three, Follett gave an example of the kind of detail he hunts down before writing: exactly how people crossed the Berlin Wall.
source ↗ - ReferenceThe Brits head to America
Unlike the first two books, this one barely touches British politics. Most of the British characters move to the US and get involved in American politics.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesA 2008 epilogue
The story runs from 1961 to 1989, but the epilogue jumps to the night Barack Obama was elected in 2008. It's the last stop on the trilogy's journey.
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