This book was a passion project, an idea born a few years ago when I was mid-contract for other things, and a book I wrote during a pandemic as I was gripped with the desire to look more closely at my own life and how I was living it.
I’ve been incredibly lucky to have found such a passionate team to champion it. Thank you to my agent Alice Lutyens for her endless good humor, great editorial eye, and boundless enthusiasm (and for making me laugh often.) To Kristyn Keene Benton and her team at ICM for being so brilliant.
To Shanika Hyslop, and the wider Curtis Brown team, for such a warm welcome. To the foreign rights team at Curtis Brown—specifically Sarah Harvey, Liz Dennis, and Caoimhe White for shouting about this book far and wide. Thank you also to the literary scouts who have read and championed this novel. To Luke Speed and Anna Wegeulin for their tireless work in the Film and Television Department.
To Julia Stolz and Felicitas Lovenberg at Piper Verlag for their thoughtful and emotional response to the manuscript—I still think about the letter you wrote me.
To my editors at HarperCollins UK and US. To Martha Ashby who broke off her own maternity leave to read and phone me about this book (so Emma!). It has been such a pleasure to work with you and I hope I haven’t been “too Lou.” To Tessa Woodward for immediately loving Dan and Emma and their story and crying over every draft.
To the wider Harper Fiction team—I’m so lucky to have you all behind me. To Kate Elton, Izzy Coburn, Lynne Drew, Phoebe Morgan, Sarah Shea, Alice Gomer, Liz Dawson, and Abi Salter for writing such wonderful words about the book right at the start. To Chere Tricot in Editorial, to Sophie Raoufi in Marketing, Izzy, Alice, Sarah Munro, Gemma Raynor, Ben Hurd, and Fliss Porter in Sales. To Emilie Chambeyron in PR. And Ellie Game for the cover design. To Fionnuala Barrett and Charlotte Brown in audio and Grace Dent, Dean Russell, Melissa Okusanya, and Hannah Stamp in production. To Sarah Bance for her copyedit and Fran Fabriczki for the proofread.
I’d very much like to thank the whole team at William Morrow, HarperCollins. To Madelyn Blaney for her editorial eye, to DJ DeSmyter in marketing, Julie Paulauski in publicity, Jennifer Hart, and Liate Stehlik, who showed such enthusiasm for this book. To the sales team and all the booksellers, reviewers, and more in the US who work so hard to get the right book into the hands of the right reader. It’s humbling to see how many people it takes to bring a good book to life.
To my writer friends who read early drafts or sections of the book: so many amazing, brilliant women and writers. Kirsty Greenwood, Isabelle Broom, Cathy Bramley, Sophie Cousens, Rachael Lucas, Jo West, and Pernille Hughes.
To Ginny Skinner, my screenwriter partner-in-crime, for the plot walks and the chats—I always leave you feeling energized. To Iris Skinner for her TikTok knowledge. Please don’t tell me if I’ve got it all wrong. To Cat Eastham for info about tech companies in Silicon Valley. To Lara Dearman for her snakes-in-the-grass story that I then edited out of subsequent drafts. Because I’m such a snake in the grass. To Tess Henderson and Ben Gardiner for allowing me to steal their meet-cute for this book; I will never bore of hearing it. Bens are the bestest. To the Jilly Cooper Book Club gang for their cute friendship stories—fabulous women all.
To the many agents and editors I interviewed or who answered publishing questions with such generosity and discretion. Thank you Julia Silk, Sam Copeland, Emily Kitchin, Anna Hogarty, Robert Caskie, Wayne Brookes, Gillian Stern, Diane Beaumont, Miranda Jewess, Louise Buckley, Lucy Irvine, Louise Cullen, Sam Humphreys, Jonathan Eyers, Ed Wood, Alice Sutherland-Hawes, Abi Fellows, George Morley, Gillian Green, Kate Burke, Juliet Mushens, Maddie West, Christina Demosthenous, and Isobel Akenhead. I know I will have left out someone but the long list just demonstrates how many publishing people were willing to give up their time and help a writer out.
To the wider writing community—the book reviewers, bloggers, booksellers who spend so much of their time spreading their love for stories. So many of you have been so supportive in the past. I love being a part of this world.
Lastly thank you to my family—to both my parents David and Basia Martin and my sister Naomi Billington for their brilliant notes on earlier drafts. To Amy, Dena, Rosie, Pangbourne Playgroup, and others that have helped take care of our children thus enabling Ben and me to (just about) stay sane.
This is Book Thirteen and has probably been the most personal book I’ve ever written—because I feel like I am Emma. This book was inspired by being a working mother pulled in a thousand different directions, trying and failing to focus on the right things and communicating with my (really rather lovely) husband by shouting child-related info at each other—“Where’s the metanium?” “She’s already done a poo.” “We’ve run out of milk.” Etc. Chuck in a global pandemic and it is quite frankly amazing that I got anything done at all and that we still like each other.
Maybe Next Time always had to be dedicated to my husband Ben who I also met in 2006. We barely celebrate our own anniversary because we’re always too busy—so maybe this book might inspire us to slow down a bit! I love you lots.