I would very much like to acknowledge my gratitude for the award of the 2012 University of Otago College of Education/Creative New Zealand Children’s Writer in Residence which provided me with six months’ writing time, accommodation at the charming Robert Lord Cottage and a comfortable office at the College of Education. This fellowship enabled me to write Felix and the Red Rats and it was made all the more special by the warmth of my welcome (and subsequent stay in Dunedin) by Trish Brooking and my colleagues at the college, by my Longacre editor at Random House, Barbara Larson, and by my many friends new and old in the writing community of Dunedin.