There are many fine minds that helped me put Itch together. Grateful thanks to a gallery of talent. To Hilary for telling me to get on with it and pointing out that Itch was a pretty cool title. To Charlie Fletcher, who helped steer me in the right direction when I was lost in the belly of the beast. To Jo Wroe, who encouraged me to write it in the first place. To my friend and enthusiast, Martin Wroe, for telling me about Stephen King’s On Writing—what a book! To Helen Kanmwaa and her punctuation skills. To the Senior Vice-President of the Geographical Association, Bob Digby, for all Cornish and magma-based knowledge (no, Mr. Watkins is not him!). To nuclear physicist Professor Paddy Regan at Surrey University, thanks for all the advice, and the use of the white coat and the x-ray fluorescence spectrometer. To UCL’s chemist extraordinaire, Professor Andrea Sella, who first told me about the “island of stability.” To all the scientists I interviewed while at BBC Radio 5 Live, particularly the extraordinary James Lovelock, CH, CBE, FRS. I’m not sure Jacob Alexander is the best disciple to have! To Dr. John Lee, FRCA, for his knowledge on anesthesia. To Ian Rankin who, in a wonderful Twitter exchange, found me Sam Copeland at RCW, who believed in Itch from the start. To all at Random House UK, especially Kelly Hurst, for whipping me and Itch into shape. To Theodore Gray’s The Elements, an extraordinary book and source of the “everything you can drop on your foot” quote that Itch mentions to his mother. To the original Itchingham Lofte and Nathaniel Flowerdew, I am in your debt. To the “radioactive boy scout,” Daniel Hahn, who showed what one boy was capable of. To Caroline Chignell and Emily Rees Jones at PBJ Management for reading and liking Itch in the beginning. And to Ben, Natasha (neat idea!), and Joe, who put up with a possessed wannabe author they weren’t quite expecting.
Any mistakes are, of course, all my own work!
Coming in 2014
ITCH
ROCKS
The story continues in a new, exciting adventure featuring Itchingham Lofte.
Turn the page for a taste of what’s to come….
