A few years ago, one of my best friends, the jaw-droppingly awesome Toni Harrington, asked me if I would do ‘something’ for Nottingham’s first ever children’s book festival, Tales from the Riverbank. She promised to buy me beer, and so, a short while later, I found myself in a suburban church hall performing a hastily concocted, fossil-fuelled romp called ‘Bring Back the Dinosaurs’ to a spirited eruption of schoolchildren.1 They were feisty, they were scary, they were oh so very lairy (the children, not the dinosaurs). Never have I met an audience so determined to join in! Somehow, I managed to survive the experience and make it out of Nottingham without going the way of the dodo. Then, over time, as the emotional (and physical) scars from my feistiest gig ever began to fade, ‘Bring Back the Dinosaurs’: The Show slowly evolved into Bring Back the King: The Book. I hope you have enjoyed it.
The book may be nearly finished, but before I’m done, I would like to take the opportunity to thank all those who have lent a hand along the way. First and foremost, a huge and sincere thank you to all of the animals that have ever gone extinct. Without you, there would be no Bring Back the King. It’s not without irony that I note how your selfless eradication from the face of the planet has paved the way for my own self-interested ramblings. Passenger pigeons and Tazzy tigers, I owe you big time. Mammoths and dinosaurs, ditto. If you do ever come back, I promise to buy you some beech mast/rodents/buttercups/fresh meat …
Jim Martin, my editor at Bloomsbury, you are not extinct but thank you anyway. Thank you for buying me lunch that sunny summer’s day and convincing me that this was a book worth writing. Thank you for your unwavering support and upbeat attitude throughout the entire process. It’s been nothing less than a pleasure and a privilege from start to finish. You, Anna MacDiarmid and the guys at Bloomsbury are the best.
Matt Dawson (www.matt-dawson.co.uk), my insanely talented also-not-extinct illustrator, somehow you have managed to capture the essence of Bring Back the King with just a few, well-placed pencil strokes. I have no idea how you do it, but you are nothing short of brilliant. Thank you. No one draws a ‘chirpy’ dodo or a ‘soulful’ thylacine quite like you do. Your drawings make me happy. I like that. A lot.
Scientists, I salute you. In the course of writing this book, I have visited, Skyped, emailed, telephoned, texted, sent carrier pigeons to, stalked and generally bothered a veritable theory of researchers and other helpful people. Your insight, comments and kind words have been gratefully received.2 Thank you Alberto Fernández-Arias, George Poinar, Roger Avery, Michael Benton, Ben Collen, Ross Barnett, Ryan Phelan, Stewart Brand, Darren Naish, John Hutchinson, Mary Schweitzer, Mike Buckley, Phil Manning, Sergio Bertazzo, Susie Maidment, Jack Horner, Arkhat Abzhanov, Semyon Grigoriev, Sergey Zimov, Michael McGrew, Akira Iritani, Yoshimi Kanzaki, Beth Shapiro, Adam Wolf, Insung Hwang, Roy Weber, Kevin Campbell, Arthur Caplan, Julian Hume, Jacquelyn Gill, Jing Liu, Mark Avery, Chris Stringer, Andrew French, Michael Mahony, Michael Tyler, Jan Stejskal, Koby Barhad, Gareth Hempson, Richard Freeman, John Gurdon, Bob Meyer, Joni Mabe, Gil McVean, Mark Evans, Robert Plomin, Ben Johnson, Neil Hall, Dan Goldowitz, Mark Pallen, Gerd Kempermann, Chris Smith, Ben Minteer, Rhiannon Lloyd, Samantha Wisely, Bas Wintermans, John Zichy-Woinarski, Paul Meek, Rob Etches, Sayed-Morteza Hosseini, Mohammad H. Nasr-Esfahani, Stephen Seager, Robert Hermes, Michael Bruford, Andrew Torrance, Martha Gomez, Sam Turvey, Phil Seddon, Jeanne Loring, Anucha Sathanawongs, Richard Vigne, Robin Lovell-Badge, Susie Ellis, Joshua Akey, Oliver Ryder, Robert Etches, Hugh McLachlan, Gary Roemer, Matthew Hayward, Mark Jobling, Mark Witton, Steve Brusatte, Love Dalen, Ian Barnes, Tom Gilbert, William Holt, Tony Gill and Hugh Hunt for your time, your enthusiasm, your patience and your papers.
In addition, gold stars and the promise of a pint go to Ben Novak, Thomas Hildebrandt, Jack Price, Michael Archer, George Church, Malgosia Nowak-Kemp, Malcom Logan, Jeff Craig, Thomas Wynn, Michael Kjelland and Timandra Harkness for going the extra mile and taking the time to proofread and comment on the various drafts that I produced. At the risk of sounding like a luvvie at an awards ceremony, I couldn’t have done it without you.
To my friends, thank you for putting up with me. When I said, ‘I just interviewed a guy who specialises in the epigenetic control of embryonic limb development’, you heard, ‘blah, blah, blah.’ And when I said, ‘I’ve a feeling that induced pluripotent stem cells will become a stalwart of future high-tech conservation strategies’, you heard, ‘blah, blah, wart, blah.’ But it didn’t seem to matter. The room just went quiet for a little bit then the conversation started up again. Thank you Toni and Jon Harrington, Allison Botha, Justine Mallard, Eve, Jeremy and Harry, Caroline Forman, Sarah ‘Stobbsy’ Stobbs, Tracey Mafe, Andrea Warrener, Jane Bennett, Jess Semple, Isobel Collins, Sue Smith, Rachel Waters and Jo Brodie. Thank you for the blurry, booze-fuelled evenings, the friendship and the support. Thank you Brian, Clare and Milly for the doggy day care. Phil Davidson and Meirel Whaites, thanks for being so lovely to my kids and for inspiring us all to find joy in Jurassic rock. Sara Abdulla, you got me into all this. Thank you for believing in me. Aĉiū, Paulius Tricys. Aš pasiilgau tavęs. Thanks also to Twinings, who make the best Earl Grey tea bags. I can report that I have drunk no fewer than 2,160 mugs of tea (milk, no sugar) during the writing process. Beat that if you can, Harkness.
To anyone else that I may have forgotten: apologies. You were amazing. I will make you a cuppa next time we meet. I might even throw in a custard cream.
And finally … To my husband, Joe. To my children, Amy, Jess and Sam. To my mum, Nijole, and to my very own hound dog, Higgs. Thank you for being there, always. Thank you for the warmth, the love and the laughter. Thank you for the frequent distractions, the endless cups of tea and for putting up with me not being there all the evenings and weekends that I spent working in my study. You were always on my mind.
NOTES
1 ‘Eruption’ is, I believe, the correct collective noun for schoolchildren. There’s also a ‘tantrum’ of toddlers and ‘strop’ of teenagers.
2 There is no agreed collective noun for researchers, but reasonable suggestions include ‘theory’, ‘whiteout’ and ‘bunsen’. Thanks to Matthew @MetaFatigue.