[1] Hayley Bell developed the concept for the story in the summer of 1957 in a gypsy caravan at the family's farm in Sussex.

The story was filmed as Whistle Down the Wind (1961), starring the author's daughter, Hayley Mills in the lead role.

[2] One day ten-year-old Brambling (nicknamed "Brat") and her seven year old brother Merlin ("Poor Baby") are told by their twelve-year-old sister Swallow that she and their five-year-old friend Elizabeth found a man hiding in a barn of the family farm who they believe to be Jesus Christ after taking his exclamation of "Jesus" literally when they asked who he was.

Brat, Swallow and Poor Baby later learn from their grandmother that there was not actually a plague but refused to give the real reason for the school closure other than there being a scare involving the police.

The children's father shows Brat, Swallow and Poor Baby a cross left behind on a wall still standing after the blaze and they assure him that the whole affair has not changed how they felt about Jesus.