ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The following people have helped me, whether knowingly or not:

John Aberdein, Leila Aboulela, Arlene Addison, Dawn Ades, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Jason Alexander, Woody Allen, Martin Amis, Malcolm Andrews, Sarah Anthony, Andrew Appleby, Sigrid Appleby, Edward Ardizzone, Michael Aris, Claire Armitstead, Caitrin Armstrong, Andrea Arnold, Aaron Asher, Linda Asher, W. H. Auden, Jane Austen, Johann Sebastian Bach, Emma Bainbridge, Karin Bamborough, Joann Baney, Angela Banner, Sarah Barlow, Roseanne Barr, Cecilia Bartoli, Jayne Baum, Alida Becker, Samuel Beckett, Ludwig van Beethoven, Kathy Belden, Steve Bell, Ludwig Bemelmans, Marina Benjamin, Lauren Berlant, Silvio Berlusconi, Thomas Bernhard, Harriet Bernstein, Leonard Bernstein, Quilly Bevan, Arwen Bird, Catherine Blackledge, Tom Boncza-Tomaszewski, Julia Borossa, Louise Bourgeois, Seàn Bradley, Johannes Brahms, Beth Brandes, Blake Brandes, Rand Brandes, Alfred Brendel, Joseph Brodsky, Maria Brodsky, Charlotte Brontë, Charlie Brooker, Jean de Brunhoff, Bérangère Bruno, Thomas Bruno, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Peter Burnett, Christy Turlington Burns, John Burnside, Jonathan Burt, Neil Butler, Al Byrnes, Katty Byrnes, Lydia Cacho, Brian Cain, Alexander Calder, Chris Calhoun, Joseph Campbell, Rosy Canale, Frank Capra, Sorcha Carey, Mosco Carner, Ruby Carnivale, Catherine Carver, Pablo Casals, Johnny Cash, Brian Catling, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Nick Child, Alistair Chisholm, Winston Churchill, Susannah Clapp, Tom Clark, Barbara Clarke, Jeanne Clegg, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Connie Cohen, George Cohen, Paul Cohen, John Collier, Billy Collins, Andrew Conn, Joseph Conrad, Steve Cook, Geraldine Cooke, J. California Cooper, John Cruikshank, Billy Crystal, Barry Cuda, Effie Currell, Anita Cutting, Mary Daly, Larry David, Bette Davis, Elizabeth Gould Davis, Judy Davis, Sue Deakin, Patrick Deare, Patricia Debney, Arthur DeBoer, Eugène Delacroix, Teresa Delcorso, Sarindar Dhaliwal, Janet Dick, Charles Dickens, Eric John Dingwall, Ernst von Dohnányi, Robert Donat, David Downie, Jelto Drenth, Isla Drever, Jane Drouot, Lindsay Duguid, Carol Dunbar, Grace Durham, Aida Edemariam, Barbara Ehrenreich, John Elderfield, Barbara Ellmann, Carol Ellmann, Claudia Ellmann, Doug Ellmann, Erwin Ellmann, Mary Ellmann, Maud Ellmann, Mike Ellmann, Richard Ellmann, Steff Ellmann, Steve Ellmann, Nora Ephron, Barbara Epstein, Ralph Evans, Susan Evans, Carel Fabritius, Wuzzy Fawdry, W. C. Fields, Craig Fitt, John Fitzpatrick, Carol Flett, Caroline Forbes, Becky Ford, Harrison Ford, Tom Ford, Pat Fox, Rob Fox, César Franck, Helen Frankenthaler, Rena Fredman, Maureen Freely, Christine Froula, Sue Fyvel, Muammar Gaddafi, Nancy Gaffield, Chris Gaggero, Janine Garofola, Emily Gasquoine, Felice Gasquoine, Simon Gasquoine, Marion Gatherer, Giuseppe Giacosa, Paul Giamatti, Sara Gilbert, Marija Gimbutas, Lesley Glaister, Amy Goad, David Godwin, John Golding, Benny Goodman, John Goodman, Dolly Gordon, Rosemary Goring, Steve Gough, Gerard Gould, Glenn Gould, Lawrence Gowing, Francisco Goya, Cary Grant, Kylie Grant, Richard E. Grant, Yvonne Gray, Andrew Greig, Dorothee Grisebach, Simon Groom, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Lucile Hadžihalilovic´, Ellen Hair, Elizabeth Hardwick, Barbara Hardy, Bridget Harris, Graham Harris, Anjum Hasan, Franz Joseph Haydn, Alfred Hayes, Alethea Hayter, Iris Hayter, Teresa Hayter, William Hayter, Antony Hegarty, Jascha Heifetz, Drue Heinz, Libby Henderson, Paul Henderson, Tilly Henderson, Paul Henreid, Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Hepworth, Billy Higgins, Daniel Hilton, Tim Hilton, Alexa von Hirschberg, Alfred Hitchcock, Jim Hobley, Julia Hobsbaum, Anat Hoffman, Alan Hollinghurst, Bill Hook, Margot Hook, Christine Hooper, Polly Hope, Bob Hughes, Ishtiaq Hussain, Sara Hussain, Leslie Hyde, Luigi Illica, Caithin Ingham, Lyn Innes, Daniel Irvine, Edith Irwin, Michael Jackson, Waldemar Januszczak, Elfriede Jelinek, Derek Johns, Kate Jones, Justine Jordan, James Joyce, Sebastian Junger, Maira Kalman, Ellen Kameny, Fred Kameny, Sasha Katsnelson, Molly Keane, John Keay, Grace Kelly, Samantha Kelly, Stuart Kelly, Andrew Kemp, John F. Kennedy, Leslie Kenton, Graham Keppie, Ian Kerr, Nikita Khrushchev, Phil Kiggell, Ralph Kiggell, Tim Kiggell, Mick Kilgos, Martin Luther King Jr., Richard King, Naomi Klein, Chris Knight, Eric Korn, Peter Kravitz, Stanley Kunitz, Patrick Kurp, Aung San Suu Kyi, Donna Landry, Giles Large, Stephen Large, Philip Larkin, Alan Lash, Emma Lazarus, Louise Leach, Mike Leigh, Chris Lehmann, Jack Lemmon, Leonardo da Vinci, Elizabet Leonskaya, Jon Levi, Stephanie Levi, Alan Linsley, Michelle Lloyd, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Kristen Lowman, Philippa Lowthorpe, Molly Ludlum, Rod Lurie, Wendy Mack, Henry Mackenzie, Shirley MacLaine, Tam MacPhail, Guy Maddin, Katharina Malecki, Nelson Mandela, Ruth Marcus, Filippo Marinetti, Robin Marsack, Masaccio, Georges Matisse, Henri Matisse, Mio Matsumoto, Walter Matthau, Pam Matthews, Tom Matthews, Ann McClintock, John McClintock, Boone McElroy, Joe McElroy, Dick McEwen, Kirsty McEwen, Patty McEwen, Todd McEwen, Kirsty McLachlan, Catriona McLean, Duncan McLean, Fiona McMorrow, Maureen McWilliams, Margaret Mead, Marion Meade, Herman Melville, Alan Michelson, Peter Mickleburgh, Patrick Millard, Margot Miller, Lionel Miskin, Prue Miskin, Kenji Mizoguchi, Gunnie Moberg, Alfred Molina, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Moore, Barbara Mor, Heather Morgan, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Hugo Muir, Mary Munter, Arunachalam Muruganantham, Vladimir Nabokov, Denise deCaires Narain, R. K. Narayan, Anna Netrebko, Mary Newcomb, Randy Newman, Oscar Niemeyer, Ethan Nosowsky, Clarissa Notley, Barack Obama, Scott O’Dell, Claes Oldenburg, Irene Oppenheim, Jack Oppenheim, Alice Oswald, W. Benton Overstreet, Zac O’Yeah, Anna Pacheco, Kate Parkinson, Li Pasternak Slater, Harry Patch, Luciano Pavarotti, Chris Pavely, Rose Payne, Alistair Peebles, Jacquie Perryman, Makeda Peter, Darryl Pinckney, Ainhoa Pinero, Michael Podro, Mira Pospisil, Kyrill Potapov, Alexandra Pringle, Giacomo Puccini, Kate Pullinger, Sue Purdie, Thomas Puttfarken, Craig Raine, Claude Rains, Sajjad Raza, Peter Redgrove, Christopher Reid, John C. Reilly, Rob Reiner, Rembrandt van Rijn, Auguste Renoir, Jean Renoir, Yasmina Reza, Adrienne Rich, Catherine Richardson, Thelma Ritter, Robin Robertson, Earl Robinson, Chris Rock, Derek Rodger, Jane Rogers, Irma Rombauer, Maurog Romer, Michael Romer, Caroline Rooney, Anya Rosenberg, Catherine Rosenthal, Philip Roth, John Rothery, Lynn Russell, Paul Rust, Meg Ryan, J. D. Salinger, Eric Satie, Wendy Savage, Mark Scearce, Simon Schama, Irv Schenkler, Richard Schiff, Michael Schmidt, Franz Schubert, E. F. Schumacher, Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, Martin Scofield, Janet Scott, Elzie Segar, Jerry Seinfeld, Richard Selzer, Frank Shackleton, William Shakespeare, Susan Shatto, Sue Shephard, Kate Shiner, Mark Shiner, Raj Shrivastava, Penelope Shuttle, Simone Signoret, Astrid Silins, Neil Simon, Monica Sjöö, Christopher Smart, Fraser Smith, Graham Smith, Luke Smith, Margaret Smith, Rupert Smith, Valerie Solanas, William Soutar, Mike Spells, Alan Spence, Art Spiegelman, Hilary Spurling, Lorin Stein, Leslie F. Stemp, Alan Stewart, Jimmy Stewart, Igor Stravinsky, Meryl Streep, Rick Stroud, Carmel Sunley, David Swinburne, Ingrid Tait, Alan Taylor, Jason deCaires Taylor, Joseph Than, Franny Tietov, Titian, Leo Tolstoy, Marisa Tomei, Mary Tomlinson, Paul Tortelier, Barbara Trapido, Jeremy Treglown, Saskia Tsushima, Michiko Uchida, Dubravka Ugrešic´, Jean Uppman, Ted Uppman, Joe Val, Lindeth Vasey, Giuseppe Verdi, Johannes Vermeer, Louis Verneuil, Rolando Villazon, Paul Violi, Richard Wagner, Fats Waller, Wendy Waller, Sue Walsh, Janet Ware, Jeff Ware, Mary Warnock, Colin Waters, Roderick Watkins, Doc Watson, Alisa Weilerstein, Mae West, Chris White, Peter Wilby, Laura Ingalls Wilder, John Wilkinson, Sara Wilkinson, Nik Williams, Patrick Williams, Helen Wilson, Shena Winter, Glen Wisdom, Joyce Wisdom, Pieter Wispelwey, Tara Womersley, Sarah Wood, Joyce Wray, James Wright, W. B. Yeats, Emily Yoffe, Henny Youngman, Farhan Younis, Harris Yulin, Muhammad Yunus, Muntadhar al-Zaidi, Nicky Zeeman, Kairen Zonena, and others.

The following institutions have also helped me:

archive.org; B & H Dairy, New York; Bärenreiter Kassel, Basel; “Dear Prudence”, slate.com; the East Hampton Star; Edinburgh Central Library; Edinburgh Royal Infirmary; the farmers’ markets of Chicago; Folk Arts Museum, New York; The French Fancies, Edinburgh; the Guardian; The Hallmark, New York; Historic Scotland, Orkney; Japonica, New York; John’s Pizza, New York; Kelley & Ping, New York; Kent and Canterbury Hospital, Canterbury; literature.org; The Little Owl, New York; The Lyric Diner, New York; Louvre, Paris; luminarium.org; Metropolitan Museum, New York; Metropolitan Opera, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Milady’s, New York; National Maritime Museum, Greenwich; the New York Times; Nobel Media Archive; the Orcadian; The Patio, Edinburgh; The Royal Literary Fund; The Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh; The 2nd Avenue Deli, New York; Sinclair Office Supplies, Stromness, Orkney; slate.com; Stromness Books and Prints, Orkney; Stromness Public Library, Orkney; Tankerness House, Kirkwall, Orkney; Thirsty Books; Union Square Market, New York; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Western General Hospital, Edinburgh; Wikipedia; William Harvey Hospital, Ashford.

People and institutions that have hindered me:

It would be churlish to say.

Cats that have helped me:

Bartholomew, Bathsheba, Beanie, Bubbles (the original), Chuffy, Clodie, Delilah, Equal, Martini, Patch, Piccadilly, Ptolemy, Sam, Mr. Spock, Sushi, Tigger, Trilby.

Dogs that have helped me:

Pierre, Pepito, Taxi, Klara, Poppy, and Dan.

Other pets that have helped me:

Edward, Sesame, Ipsy-pee-dwain.

Stuff I stole:

References to “valentines” reflect the author’s own impressions and fantasies based on original works of art by Barbara Ellmann.

The source for the fictional sculpture (called here Bradbridge’s Widow, Wilson’s Wife) is a sculpture called Alluvia by Jason deCaires Taylor, positioned, as suggested in this novel, underwater in the River Stour, Canterbury.

Irv Schenkler was the originator of the “sex camp” idea.

Tam MacPhail said, “Don’t graduate. Individuate!”.

The recipe for Eggnog is based on Irma Rombauer’s in The Joy of Cooking, with modifications; and the recipe for Amatriciana is based on David Downie’s in Cooking the Roman Way.

No artist was harmed in the making of this book, but flagrant annexing of J. S. Bach, Giacomo Puccini, Eugène Delacroix, Emma Lazarus, W. B. Yeats, W. H. Auden, Ben Jonson, William Soutar, and various songs, did occur. War memorials, gravestones, newspapers, and films were also quoted.

The depiction of the “museum of folksiness” is not based on any actual folk arts museum in New York or elsewhere; it reflects the characters’ skepticism about crafts and textile arts, not the author’s.

And Matisse really did paint odalisques.

Finally, with love to Todd McEwen, a heroic man. “We take all the room we need in the sky.”

L.E., 11/11/11

The author and publishers express their thanks for permission to use images and excerpts from the following copyrighted material:

Suite V—BWV 1011, from Johann Sebastian Bach—Six Suites for violoncello solo. Edited by August Wenzinger, BA 320, pages 42–51. Scores reproduced by kind permission of © Bärenreiter-Verlag Karl Vötterle GmbH & Co. KG, Kassel.

The Yellow Ale from James Joyce by Richard Ellmann, 1959. Quoted by kind permission of Oxford University Press, Inc.

original artwork © Lucy Ellmann.

The Lake Isle of Innisfree by W. B. Yeats. Quoted by kind permission of A P Watt Ltd on behalf of Gráinne Yeats.

The Lanely Müne by William Soutar. Quoted by kind permission of the National Library of Scotland and The Soutar Fund (the copyright holders), from: Into a Room: Selected Poems of William Soutar, 2000, Argyll Publishing.

The B & H restaurant menu is reprinted here by kind permission of Fawzy Abdelwahed.

My Prizes by Thomas Bernhard, 2010. Quoted by kind permission of Random House, Inc.

W. H. Auden quote from W. H. Auden: A Tribute, Oliver Sacks (author), Stephen Spender (editor), 1974, 1975. Quoted by kind permission of The Orion Publishing Group, London. © George Weidenfeld and Nicolson Ltd.

An Autobiography by Igor Stravinsky, 1936. Quoted by kind permission of Oneworld Classics Ltd.

Guide to Presentations, 3rd Edition, by © Lynn Russell and Mary M. Munter, 2011. Quoted by kind permission of Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

The Wise Wound by Penelope Shuttle and Peter Redgrove, 1978. Quoted by kind permission of David Higham Associates/Marion Boyars, Victor Gollancz.

The Story of V by © Catherine Blackledge, 2003. Quoted by kind permission of Weidenfeld & Nicolson, a division of the Orion Publishing Group, London.

Quotations from Mary Daly, Antony Hegarty and Charlie Brooker were taken, with kind permission, from the Guardian newspaper, Guardian News & Media (2011). References to well-known speeches were inspired by Tom Clark’s series, ‘Great Speeches of the 20th Century’, Guardian, 2007.

The Language of the Goddess: Unearthing the Hidden Symbols of Western Civilization by © Marija Gimbutas, 1989. Quoted by kind permission of Thames & Hudson Ltd., London, and HarperCollins Publishers.

Blood Relations by Chris Knight, 1991. Quoted by kind permission of the author and Yale University Press.

Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by © Dubravka Ugrešic´, 2007. English translation of Part III copyright © 2009 by Mark Thompson. First published in Great Britain by Canongate Books Ltd, 14 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1TE. Quoted by kind permission of Canongate and Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

Ich Habe Genug. Johann Sebastian Bach—Kantaten zu Marienfesten I—BWV 83, 82, 125, 200—Kantaten zu Mariae Reinigung—NBA, Serie I, Band 28, 1, BA 5084, page 77. Edited by Matthias Wendt and Uwe Wolf. Score reproduced by kind permission of © Bärenreiter-Verlag Karl Vötterle GmbH & Co. KG, Kassel.

Away from the Telephone by © Todd McEwen, DeliberatelyThirsty, Issue 7, August 2000, and Argyll Publishing. Todd McEwen granted permission to use his poem while he was in the shower.