Editing Johnny and the Dead (section)

==Ideas and themes==
The book is loosely based on real events in [[City of Westminster|Westminster]] in the 1980s, when the council sold three cemeteries as building land for 15p (Pratchett was working as a journalist at this time).

Part of the story deals with the last surviving member of the Blackbury pals, a [[Pals battalion]] with obvious parallel to the [[Accrington Pals]]. This man is called [[Tommy Atkins]], the name given to the generic British soldier of the day.

A running joke in the book is that most of the Dead are "nearly famous", often being recognisable as very similar to a famous Briton. It is possible that Pratchett intends Blackbury Cemetery to be "nearly [[Highgate Cemetery|Highgate]]", especially as one of the most prominent ghosts (William Stickers) is described as "The man who would have invented [[communism]] if [[Karl Marx]] hadn't."