 Rankin spent the next six months merging several of his short stories, resulting in "The Antipope", which Aldridge took to Pan Books who bought and subsequently published the novel.In spite of Aldridge's and Pan's initial enthusiasm, Pan declined to publish any novels beyond the first three books of The Brentford Trilogy.Rankin's editor moved to another publisher, and his writing career came to a halt until 1988 when Sphere Books (under the Abacus imprint) reprinted the original trilogy in one volume ().