My own first novel was set in my hometown and got me into trouble with one-time neighbours who didn't agree with my interpretation of the place.
As the death toll on both sides rises and front lines divide Sunni and Alawite settlements, one-time neighbours become enemies.Animosity is likely to worsen.
At other times, neighbours reported, the young brothers were left to their own devices and were regularly seen scavenging for food or clothing which they pulled from skips.
Several times neighbours have seen smoke pouring out of her flat and found her flapping tea cloths around to disperse the fumes.
While some have proclaimed it a hard-hitting chronicle of our times ("Neighbours as written by Philip Roth," as one reviewer put it), others have objected to its crude vision of life.
The Sydney Morning Herald's readers gave the episode three out of five stars, while the paper's television critic, Andrew Murfett, commented "The clock is omnipresent in tonight's 'real-time' Neighbours episode.
Sometimes Jonathan Miller [a long-time neighbour] would wander into shot.
She does this while talking about her close friendship with Tony Blair, a one-time neighbour, whom she admits to not seeing "very much", adding that he lives "in a different world now".
