A great many highly-skilled people were involved in the making of what you’re now holding (if you’re reading an ebook, you’ll have to use your imagination at this point). I am enormously grateful to all of them.
Carrie Plitt is the best agent ever and I will brook no argument on that. Without her, the Leo Stanhope books would have remained festering in my brain, and I’m eternally grateful that they’re not.
Alison Hennessey is Chief of the Ravens, lead therapist for Leo and an absolute genius. She and the whole team at Bloomsbury – including Marigold Atkey, Lilidh Kendrick, Sarah-Jane Forder, Philippa Cotton, Amy Donegan, Maud Davies, the sales teams and many others – are all my heroes. Thank you.
Greg Heinemann has once again designed a knockout cover.
Massive thanks to everyone who helped with the research, including the Wellcome Collection, London Zoo, the V&A, the Ragged School Museum, the Geffrye Museum, Wilton’s Music Hall, the Museum of London, the British Library, the National Archives and lots of others! Also, the Beaumont Society, a charity doing important work supporting the transgender community and advising on transgender issues. You can find them at www.beaumontsociety.org.uk.
My wonderful and beloved sons, Seth and Caleb, contributed nothing whatsoever to the writing of this novel, and for that I thank them, because their ideas are usually rubbish.
And finally, Michelle. I’m not nearly a good enough author to sum up what she has contributed to my books or anything else in my life, so I’ll just say that it’s big – really, really big – and leave it at that.