Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to the Royal Society of Literature for awarding this book a Brookleaze Grant, which enabled me to travel to Tupelo and Memphis, and to the Royal Literary Fund for granting me a Fellowship while I was writing this novel.

Many sources were useful in researching Elvis’s story, but particularly valuable to me were Peter Guralnick’s Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love, Elaine Dundy’s Elvis and Gladys, Karal Ann Marling’s Graceland: Going Home with Elvis, and We Remember Elvis by Azalia S. Moore, Guy Thomas Harris, Sybil Presley and Lee Clark.

I’d like to thank the following people for taking the time to talk Elvis with me: Mike Freeman, Roy Turner, Larry Geller, Tish Henley, Guy Thomas Harris, Wayne Mann and Neil Cameron. Jennie Bradford Curlee looked after me in Tupelo, and Alexandra Mobley let me sleep in the Elvis apartment at Lauderdale Courts.

The following writers were generous enough to read and comment on drafts of the manuscript even though they don’t particularly dig Elvis: Hugh Dunkerley, Karen Stevens, Edward Hogan and David Swann. I’m grateful, too, for the advice I received from Claire Keegan.

I’d also like to thank Poppy Hampson and Véronique Baxter for their advice and support. And Mum for starting the whole thing. And Hugh and Ted for their love.

Thank you. Thank you very much.