I would like first to acknowledge the wonderful James Gill, my agent. Without him I would be adrift.
Publishing is a complicated, many-facetted, enterprise. Over the years with Bloomsbury I have come, more or less, to understand what everyone is doing. And these are the people who have worked patiently and calmly on my books.
Michael Fishwick is my editor and plays a key role, one of reassurance and light discipline. And lunch. Anna Simpson has been diligent and cheery and kept the process moving smoothly. Thanks too to Madeleine Feeny and Anika Ebrahim. All the people who sell the books in to bookshops are, as I have seen at first hand, both indispensable and persistent. I have seen Bloomsbury’s sales team in action, and they aren’t easily fobbed off.
I would also like also to thank Alexandra Pringle, Kathleen Farrar, Richard Charkin and Nigel Newton.
Writers, inhabiting their own, self-serving world, are not necessarily the best choice of partner, and I acknowledge warmly all that my wife, Penny, has done over the last many years.