Some people I would like to thank:
First and foremost I would like to thank a lovely lady called Rachel Petty, who works at Macmillan Children’s Books in London, for giving me the opportunity to turn my idea into a book and then editing the results with so much wit and enthusiasm. Next I want to thank a tall and brilliant American man called Frank Wuliger from the Gersh Agency and a shorter but equally brilliant British lady called Felicity Rubinstein from Lutyens & Rubinstein Literary Agency for their guidance and encouragement. A very big thank you to the entire team at Macmillan Children’s Books—especially Kat and Bea—a more welcoming, talented, and supportive group of human beings is impossible to imagine. Extremely large thanks also to Wes Adams, my editor at Farrar Straus Giroux, and to the whole crew at Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group in that wonderful Flatiron Building in New York, for all of your hard work in helping to bring the American edition of this book to life. I would like to apologize to my sons, Oscar, Leo, Caspar and Asa, for spending so many weekends at my desk writing when they really wanted me to go outside and play Frisbee. And finally I would like to thank my wife, Louise, but I won’t because she would probably be very embarrassed if I told you just how wonderful I think she is.
Some people I am definitely not going to thank:
I would definitely not like to thank the guy who lets his dog go to the loo right outside our front door all the time, the person who stole Oscar’s bicycle, and whoever it is that hides one really disgusting pistachio nut in every pack I buy.