The book was inspired by the highly publicised murder of James Bulger, a two-year-old boy who was kidnapped, tortured and killed by a pair of ten-year-olds. Like the case, the story raises the question of nature versus nurture - in other words, are some children born bad, or are evil children the product of their circumstances? Fine stated in a 1998 interview that "it was not just the murder itself" that inspired her, "but the ghastly British response to it: 'Lock 'em up and throw away the key'".
