In writing about Jane Shore, the background to her life and her legend, I have received essential and valuable help from many individuals and organisations. Particularly important has been the groundbreaking research by Nicolas Barker and the late Sir Robert Birley concerning her family, their London life and Jane’s possible connection with Eton College, published in 1972 in Etoniana Nos. 125 and 126. New information also came from Desmond Seward in his 1995 study The Wars of the Roses and the Lives of Five Men and Women in the Fifteenth Century.
In addition Professor J.L. Harner of Texas A&M University gave me his unpublished dissertation ‘Jane Shore: A Biography of a Theme in Renaissance Literature’ and indicated several hard-to-find sources of reference and information.
Other information has come from the Group Archives Unit at Barclays Bank plc, the British Film Institute, the Monumental Brass Society, the Richard III Society, the National Portrait Gallery and Tate Britain, London; many libraries have been helpful: the Bodleian Library, the British Library, the Guildhall Library, the Huntingdon Library in San Marino, California, the Pepys Library, Cambridge and the Poetry Library, London. The Dictionary of National Biography (2004) has also been constantly useful.
I am especially grateful to the Billingshurst branch of West Sussex County Libraries, where the staff have been unfailingly helpful in all ways.
I have also received helpful cooperation from Bill Alexander; Professor Sir John Baker (Cambridge); Nick Baker, Collections Administrator, Eton College; Catherine Ellis carried out wide-ranging Internet research. Madge Madden-Colenso and Mike Heritage took me to Hinxworth in Hertfordshire where Mrs Yvonne Tookey, Secretary to the Parochial Church Council, showed me the Lambert-Lynam family memorial brasses in the church of St Nicholas. Further help came from Geoffrey Wheeler, Anne Easton, Philip Heritage, Andrew Player, Elfreda Powell, Jan Stadler and my agent Jeffrey Simmons. My friend Bren Newman has supported and educated me constantly in the world of computer technology; I cannot thank her enough for her advice and cooperation.
Finally, I would especially like to thank Jaqueline Mitchell, my commissioning editor at Sutton Publishing, and the other members of the team: Anne Bennett, Jane Entrican and the unsung heroes and heroines in the back office.
M.C.