Steve,
1.) Historically, there was The Jungle Book (1894) and The Second Jungle Book (1895), followed by The Third Jungle Book in the 1990s by some American woman. Here, Sir Rudyard keeps on writing and writing and writing, even at the age of 103; he doesn't suffer the loss of his son in the Great War either.
2.) It was very much a political entity for the last decade or so, representing the legitimacy of Free Poland. It was made up of the aging wartime veterans as the officer and NCO corps, with the rank and file provided by the children of the exile community and the Polish diaspora from the USA, British Empire and France; even then, it was more of a symbolic hollow force than a useful or deployable element. In terms of units, they almost entirely marched on paper and formed a bit of a social club, with the exception of the ceremonial Royal Polish Guards battalion and Winged Hussars regiment. First to go was the Royal Polish Navy, which was laid up by the mid 1950s after being perpetuated as part of the RN.
3.) An OTL event with a longer period of effectivity; the development of artificial organs is rather more advanced.
4.) It was a historical event, yes. No trolls.
5.) Unfortunately, it is a frequent occurence.
6.) Historically, there was a big shift between Roth in 1957 (6-3) and Stanley in 1969 (0-9) on the question of the protection of pornography. A very large part of this came down to the shifting social standards of the Sexual Revolution rather than a really dramatic shift in the alignment of the Supreme Court, although the Warren Court was very much a liberal one given to broad and creative interpretation. Here, the US Supreme Court is rather more conservative, reflecting a more socially conservative society and new Chief Justice Nixon is absolutely no Earl Warren. Some cases will not change, given logic and legal arguments, but where the change was driven by more than a decade of social changes absent on Dark Earth, we won't see them. I'm half wearing my law student hat for the cases out of general interest in exploring how and why very different decisions could eventuate, so I'm not simply going for conservatism for its own sake.
7.) Historically, many of the Maginot Line ouvrages were repurposed for this very role in the 1960s. This is simply a further development of the same notion. You are correct in picking up that it is still used as a defence against certain enemies to the east - both the USSR and the potential enemy, Germany, should politics shift rapidly. Political change happens a lot faster than fortifications can be built, major weapons systems developed and defence posture can be altered, so as an insurance policy, France keeps her nominal defences present, just not readied.
8.) You pick up on the nom de guerre very well and identify the use of both Swahili/East Africa and West African components to it. What possible reason could a figure have for adopting a multi-regional name?
9.) He is already kicking on further than @ and will do so for many years to come. In a way, he will be part of a British 'triumvirate' of science fiction authors (akin to the international one of Asimov, Heinlein and Clarke) along with John Christopher/Sam Youd and Nicholas Fisk, or at least a bit of younger readers/older children's sci-fi. That is one of the few flourishes of personal preference I'm allowing to creep in, having discovered their works in the late 1980s as a boy through the Thames TV adaption of Wyndham's
Chocky and then developed a taste for the written works of all three in 1990-1992.
Fisk's
Trillions of 1972 is an extremely British science fiction story that I was introduced to on audio cassette tape, followed by discovering John Christopher's
The Sword of the Spirits trilogy and Wyndham's
Day of the Triffids;
The Tripods came years later, but appealed to me as an interesting example of British children's science fiction television and an interesting little written work to boot. Christopher and Fisk wrote their best stuff in the late 1960s and early 1970s (as distinct from Wyndham's 1950s pomp) which was and is an era of literature of that genre that I enjoy and appreciate.
10.) It would seem to be a bit of a combination of both, with the early 1960s enthusiasm that did exist in @ in the Khrushchev period not being buried by Brezhnevian malaise and depression as occurred historically. The new chap is responsible for a bit of this continued verve.
11.) I succeeded in my intention in this respect. A 'Weird Cold War' is a bit more threatening (and atmospheric from a literary point of view) than one where all secrets are known in my view.
12.) The West has Bobby Fischer from the USA and a British youngster who will dispute that...
13.) Indeed. The warning was historical, but I decided to chuck in a bit about the old mother's cautionary tale being true to add to the fun, character and style of the world.
14.) I doubt it. There hasn't been any sort of groundswell of demand for change thus far. The cultural normality of school, then national service, then work or study has been drilled in for multiple generations, rather than being a fairly recent phenomenon and, whilst the postwar generation is large, it isn't truly culturally distinct in the manner of @. As of 1969, the year group turning 18 are 1951 drops. Their early childhood was one of war in Korea, followed by a big war in the Middle East. By the time they entered secondary school in 1962/63, they'd lived through another war scare in 1960 and then have seen Vietnam progress through their teenage years. Their parents are either WW2 veterans or lived through both it and the Depression. They've had a lot of affluence, but not the same rebellion in dress, movies and music.
Generational change is inevitable, but the same degree of perceived 'revolutionary change' is something that requires additional circumstances and drivers in my view.
15.) The Dark Earth Bond continuity is a bit different to @, so whilst it bears some resemblance to OHMSS, it is a separate story. By 1969, Bond is 45 and rather hardened after 27 years of active service in the RN, SOE and MI6, but lives in a world where the active years of an agent are somewhat more extended through various arcane and medical means; he looks and fights like a chap a dozen years his junior.
16.) It is the descendant of the Martian heat rays used in The War of the Worlds, so is not inefficient in and of itself. Those captured by the British in the 1890s were reverse engineered and tinkered with for over 30 years until they could utilised effectively, initially on skyships and airships, but they never really found an ideal niche. On land, in tactical combat, it offers some advantages, but these continue to be tested and refined into two major streams. The first is a directed energy weapon/laser cannon a la Warhammer 40k, whilst the second is a more genuine heat ray for anti-personnel use: something like the Area Denial System, which can cause pain on its lowest setting all the way up to a beam of superheated energy that can set groups of enemy personnel on fire without vaporising/disintegrating them like some of the film versions of the Heat Ray.
17.) It involved planning, skill, daring and a great deal of good luck, but the additional distances are not utterly impossible.
18.) Medicare for All is an attractive proposition, but an expensive one, both financially and politically.
19.) Rather. Rather. Something very different is going on in the past.
20.) It is largely a precaution, but anything falling from the sky leads to a big reaction after the events of the last decade.
21.) I couldn't see a way towards changing the result, unfortunately. Maybe next year.
22.) No, in this case it was sound from an older, louder helicopter, combined with that old chestnut of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
23.) I see you saw where I was going there.
24.) Nothing helps reduce tensions than a visit from the big boys on the block to remind the neighbours to keep the noise down.
25.) Whilst they don't have anywhere near the resources of the really powerful teams in Test Cricket, they are evolving. The titan in the making is India, given the quality of players who started in @ in the 1970s in India and Pakistan.
- was this OTL?
This goes with the greater state control than OTL.