I have been exceptionally fortunate in the help I have received in writing this book. Simon Winder, my editor at Penguin, is everything an editor should be and more; his comments have improved the book immeasurably. Eric Chinski, my editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux in the United States, has given me and the book immense support and encouragement. My friend Adam Phillips has given invaluable advice, which helped give the book the shape I had dimly in mind. My agent Tracy Bohan has given me all that a writer could ask; throughout the book’s gestation she has been unfailingly supportive and encouraging. Her colleague at the Wylie Agency Catrin Evans looked after me while Tracy was on maternity leave, making the book’s completion smooth and problem-free.
Conversations with a number of people stirred the thoughts that went into the book. Among those I would like to thank are Bryan Appleyard, Bas Heijne, David Herman, Gerard Lemos, James Lovelock, David Rieff, Paul Schütze, Will Self, John Simenon, Geoffrey Smith and Nassim Taleb.
I have used the lines from R. S. Thomas’s poem ‘The Refusal’ as the epigraph for Chapter 2 with permission from Bloodaxe Books and the Estate of R. S. Thomas.
Since I have not always taken the advice I was given, it is important to note that responsibility for the book remains mine. The same applies to the use I have made of the writers and books I have cited.
As always, my greatest debt is to my wife Mieko.
John Gray