I would like to thank various people for making this book possible. First and foremost, my sister Emma, an amazing editor who managed to find time to guide me through the formative stages of writing my first novel despite her own formidable workload. Her patience, wisdom and expertise played a crucial part in helping me take the idea that started as a tiny seedling in my imagination and getting it out into the world. I would also like to thank my twin sister Sophie and my mother Polly for reading endless first drafts and giving me invaluable feedback along the way.
As part of my research I would like to thank my friends Carice Irwin-Clark and Sophie Walton for their help and insights into parenthood. I would also like to thank The London Women’s Clinic for taking the time to answer my numerous questions about donor insemination.
I owe a huge thank you to Bea Corlett, my agent, who played an enormous part in building the plot and adding depth to the story with her initial edits.
I have been very lucky to work with Caroline Ridding and Sarah Ritherdon at Aria. Their support and encouragement has been invaluable. Sarah’s editing is sensitive, meticulous and incredibly skilful and makes the whole process as enjoyable as possible. I would also like to thank Jade Craddock for her detailed and enormously thorough copy editing. The rest of the team at Aria, Nia Beynon, Yasemin Turan and Geo Willis have all helped in bringing my dream of publishing my debut novel into reality, for which I am eternally grateful.
Lastly I would like to thank my family for all their loving support over the years. They always made me feel like achieving anything I put my mind to was possible, and it turned out, they were right. And finally to my husband, Tom, thanks for putting up with me… you are definitely my very own Rory McCullan, and I am very lucky to have you.