I owe a great deal to The Leaping Hare by George Ewart Evans and David Thomson. I bought it in the school bookshop when I was fourteen, but didn’t read it until I began thinking about writing a book of this nature some decades later. It has been a rich resource, for which I am very grateful.
I am also grateful to Anthony Cheetham for his alacrity and enthusiasm, my astonishing editor Fiona Kennedy, my wonderful readers Katrin Williams and Barnaby Fishwick, my brilliant cover designer Emma Ewbank, my copy-editor Jenny Glencross, Caradoc King, Sam Taylor, Samuel Fishwick, David Miller, Megan Schaffer, Catherine Clarke, Christelle Chamouton, Jon Dunn, Sarah Whitehouse, Jonathan Taylor and the lovely and supportive people at Head of Zeus, including the insightful Madeleine O’Shea, Jessie Price, Suzanne Sangster, Clémence Jacquinet, Ian Rutland and Amanda Ridout.
Michael Fishwick
London
January 2017