Many thanks are due to the brilliant team at Simon and Schuster: Jo Dickinson, Rebecca Farrell, Jess Barratt, Dawn Burnett, Rhiannon Carroll and the excellent sales team. I receive so much support and encouragement from you all, my job feels easy.
Many thanks to Stephen Wright at Two Cities, for commissioning the series for TV, which has been a huge boost. Thanks are also due to my literary agent Teresa Chris and my TV agent Katie Langridge for believing so passionately in this series from the start.
Thanks to the kind staff of the Turk’s Head and the Post Office on St Agnes for answering questions about island life and whether or not someone could drown at high tide if they fell from the Bar. Thanks also to Nigel at Paulgers Taxis on St Mary’s for an excellent guided tour, and Rachel Greenlaw for her hospitality at her lovely apartment, Cowrie. In a typical piece of Scillonian generosity, Rachel took me out for coffee and offered me a week’s free accommodation on the first day we met! Thanks to lovely Linda Thomas at Porthcressa Library for describing winter storms in the Scillies, and how the off-islands can become isolated for days during a bad squall. Pete Hicks, St Mary’s lifeboat cockswain, spent time describing sea conditions around St Agnes, which helped a great deal. I am also very grateful to Sam Rogerson, Cornish Language and Culture Support officer, for translating the Cornish passages in the book for me. Oll an gwella, Sam! Your help was invaluable.
Thanks as ever to all of my writing pals: the Killer Women, the 134 Club, Penny Hancock, Clare Chase, Valentina Giambanco, Mary-Jane Riley and Miranda Doyle. My husband Dave Pescod is a brilliant and tireless critic, and still my biggest cheerleader after twenty-three years. Thanks also to stepsons Jack, Matt and Frank, for encouraging me to keep writing. What lovely, thoughtful men you have become!
Special thanks are due to my mother, Wendy Rhodes, for being so full of joy when she heard that the series had been optioned. Your texts and kind words keep me writing, Mum. Cheers to Honor, my sister, for being generally fabulous.
Finally, thanks to Twitter pals Peggy Breckin, Julie Boon, Jenny Blackwell, Louise Marley, Janet Fearnley, Hazel Wright, Christine South, Polly Dymock, Angela Barnes, Rach Medlock, Sarah LP and hundreds more. Your kind messages of encouragement inspire me to produce the best stories I can dream up, to keep you all entertained.