Acknowledgements

First I want to thank Hugh Andrew of Birlinn for asking me to write this. I have greatly enjoyed working with him and his team. Too rare in publishing, they are dynamic, business-like and cheery. Birlinn makes authors feel good, even important, even if they’re not particularly. And that’s also too rare a trick in publishing. Thanks to Graeme Leonard for a brisk and painless edit, and to all my patient readers. Walter Elliot had something of a family interest in this one. And finally my thanks to lovely Liz Hanson for her superb photographs. They are an adornment – as ever.