This book only exists because of two brilliant people. If you loathe it, please blame Holly Bott and Amanda Harris (I’m very happy to give you their contact details). I absolutely wouldn’t have considered it without their push, their brains and their endless support. They also gave me a lanyard, which I feel is important to mention.
My enormous thanks to everyone at HQ who were so lovely and charming on Zoom and said this was a good idea. I can’t wait to actually physically meet you all. As promised, I’ll bring biscuits and we can do the conga. My heartfelt thanks go to my editor Kate Fox. She’s the kindest person on the planet and made cinnamon buns, which as we all know are the answer to everything.
Thank you to the extraordinary Jonathan Yeo. I still quite can’t believe you drew me for the cover. I will be in shock about this fact for the next hundred years.
Thanks to my extraordinary girlfriends – for the laughs, for your wisdom, for your love. I don’t know how I got so lucky to have you all but am grateful every single day. Regarding this book, I need to say an enormous and specific thank you to Sara, Vicky, Imi, Hen and Kirsty.
I need to say thank you to the people who got me here in the first place. On both the telly and happily tapping away on a computer writing gibberish. I will be grateful forever to Joanna Kaye, Jonathan Lloyd, Martin Ivens and Simon Kelner. Thank you to the BBC for a career I don’t deserve and thank you to every single person who works on Strictly.
Thank you to my knockout parents and step-parents for being the best people I know, and finally to the Danish creature I call husband. Kris, I know I’ve been annoying writing this – complaining and moaning and never getting dressed and insisting on toast and lemon curd at midnight while you’ve basically done everything else. Thank you for pretending to be totally fascinated by my use of brackets. (I love you so much.)