The origins of this project can be traced back to a conference on Rethinking Genre at Royal Holloway, University of London, where the editors first met. It gathered steam at the Modernist Studies Association convention in Montréal in 2009, where several contributors to this volume presented papers on the themes of trust and lying. We’re grateful to those panellists and to the participants in the ensuing discussions, whose papers, comments and questions convinced us that a collective book on these topics was worth pursuing. Many other individuals and institutions have been instrumental in bringing this book to completion. Ann Donahue and the entire editorial team at Ashgate got behind our project and shaped it into the book it is. Aaron Jaffe provided encouragement and helpful advice at several stages. Numerous colleagues in the School of the Arts and Media at the University of New South Wales generously discussed and critiqued the ideas behind the book. Helen Groth and Julian Murphet, in particular, deserve mention for offering wise counsel at the right moments. Correspondence and conversations with Tim Armstrong and Malcolm Bull also helped the project along. Our cover image looked unlikely at one stage and owes its presence here to Alan Kirby at SCALA. More material assistance was provided by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the School of the Arts and Media at UNSW in the form of grants for teaching relief and a timely publishing subvention. Thanks are due also to the library staff at UNSW, especially the indefatigable interlibrary loans team, the staff development and library staff at Newbold College and the Department of English and Humanities and library staff at Birkbeck, University of London.
Among the many friends and family who should be thanked here, we would like in particular to acknowledge Sara Wellman, Mercia Ferrier, Anne Noble, Mary Fowler, Cathy and Roland Baudet, Trish Ferrier, Richard Rawlings, Ian Ferrier, Liz Ferrier, Paul Ferrier, Rachel Doherty, Bill Thompson, Pat Diamond, Robin Anthony, Peter Balderstone, Sandra Rigby-Barrett, colleagues at Newbold College and the University of Portsmouth, the Kohtz family, the Becejac family and the Rosenquist family, especially (and always) Maria, Rye and Cyan.