My thanks to Frances Wilson and Terence Blacker for reading early drafts, to A.N. Wilson, Selina Hastings, Maggi Hambling, Polly Devlin, Robert Harris, Susanna Johnston, Hugo Vickers, Christopher Sykes, Eleanor Bron, Mary James, Johnny James, Lucy Lambton, Francis Wheen and David Jenkins for their help, and to my editors at 4th Estate, Nicholas Pearson, Lettice Franklin and Robert Lacey, for their skill and encouragement.
My darling wife Frances has been amazingly sympathetic throughout, especially considering that she has had her own Russian royals to worry about. Our children, Tallulah and Silas, are both now professional writers, and very proud of them we are, too.