Hampstead Heath forms part of the main location for Will Self's 2006 novel The Book of Dave. Half of the book is set 500 years in the future, when all of London has been submerged by a catastrophic flood, leaving only the hilltops of Hampstead and the heath as a tiny island - The Island of Ham. The parts of the book set in the present-day also make references to the heath's high and dry location which would preserve the area in the event of sea level rises over 100m. Self writes, ... the heath ... this peculiar island, a couple of square miles of woodland and meadow set down in the lagoon of the city.