THIS BOOK TOOK A SHORT TIME to write but a long time to make. While I was researching it I spoke to many people about sound and hearing, and though I wasn’t able to include all of them, their involvement was vital. Katrina Burton, Catriona Hetherington, Oliver Searle, Professor David McAlpine, Rupert Taylor, Charlie Swinbourne and Caroline Parker all gave their time and insights without reservation. I’m also immensely grateful to all those I have quoted: Jacqui Sheldrake, Dr Robert Vincent, Professor Victor Humphrey, Steve Rakkar-Thomas, Adam Sieff, Andy Hearn, Sir Peter de la Billière, Oliver Headley*, Giles Martin and Jack Kartush, Dr Sally Austen and everyone at the Birmingham & Solihull Deaf Mental Health Service (names of patients are pseudonyms for privacy’s sake, but you know who you are).
Heartfelt thanks to Cecily Gayford at Profile for her forbearance through several lively bouts of editorial cat-herding, to Kirty Topiwala for offering the full splendour of Wellcome’s research resources, to Andrew Franklin, Anna-Marie Fitzgerald and Valentina Zanca at Profile for making the whole process such good fun, and to Simon Garfield for a revision I followed to the letter. I’m also grateful to Professor Alan Palmer for fact-checking over his Christmas break, and to Victoria Hobbs for holding fast.
But the biggest thanks of all goes to those who were there all the way through: Lucy, Flora, Rupert and Shera Bathurst, Alex, Ruth and Danny Renton, Kamal Ahmed, Ruaridh Nicoll, Paddy and Petra Cramsie, Miranda Holt, Clare Hulton, Tony Daniels, Angus and Stephanie Wolfe-Murray, and Urièle and Marc. ‘Thanks’ is far too small a word. ‘Love’ covers it better.
* Not his real name.