ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
‘Sally in the Wood’ is a curved stretch of road on the Somerset–Wiltshire border that cuts through dense woodland near Bath. Various explanations exist for the location’s strange name and much has been speculated and written about the history and mythology of the area. While this novel is loosely inspired by the place and stories of Sally in the Wood and the nearby stone folly, I’ve taken liberties to create other fictional surroundings. These places are drawn purely from my imagination. I hope readers who are familiar with the area will forgive my creative licence.
The idea for this novel took root a few days after my daughter completed a Girl Guides night hike to the stone folly above the very spooky Sally in the Wood. So my first thank you goes to Gracie, for telling me about her walk, and for sharing how creepy it was. It’s thanks to her, and a few rambling walks with the dog, that this novel exists.
My thanks as always go to Sarah Lutyens, the very best agent I could wish for, whose support goes way beyond what I dreamed of years ago as a new writer. Muddy twilight walks and homemade kombucha mornings on the farm are now my favourites. I also owe my gratitude to the entire Lutyens & Rubinstein team, who have to deal with my awful admin skills and tax questions. (Sorry, Lily.) Big thanks to the wonderful David Forrer at Inkwell, for steering me so well in North America. Chatting with David over champagne and olives is the best!
I love being part of the Simon & Schuster team. Thank you to my publishers, Clare Hey, Kaitlin Olson, Cassandra di Bello, Anthea Bariamis, Adrienne Kerr and everyone across all the departments at Simon & Schuster around the world who’ve been involved in turning this messy manuscript into a book. I’m so grateful.
Thanks a million to the booksellers, librarians, reviewers and bloggers who keep the literary world thriving. A special shout-out to Graham at Paper Plus, Whakatāne, in NZ, for making me laugh with his Instagram reels. I’m looking forward to that sausage roll, one day.
Thanks to Adrian Thompson-Boyce for answering some of my research questions. Any mistakes in this book are mine alone.
Big love to my sister Jess, always my first reader, cheerleader and general sounding board.
Love and gratitude to my amazing family and friends, especially Matt, Jude, Gracie, Noah, Zac and Sadie. You guys are the best.
Last, but by no means least, thank you to you, the reader, for picking up this book. I love being a storyteller, and it’s because of you that I get to be one. I hope you enjoyed the read. If you’d like to let me know what you thought about this book or any of my previous novels, you can find me online.
@hannahrichell
@hannahrichellauthor