I would, of course, like to take all the credit for the good bits of this book, and blame all the bad bits on someone else—preferably someone I don’t like who lives miles away. Unfortunately, this sort of behavior is generally frowned upon, so I had better come clean and admit that I had a lot of help.
My editor, Helen Conford, was endlessly helpful in keeping me on the straight and narrow and trying to get me to produce a readable piece of work. Without the enthusiasm of my agent, Patrick Walsh, the whole thing would have fallen at the first fence. I would also like to thank Sarah Hunt-Cooke for her impressive wheeler-dealing work on the project. Also, thanks to Jane Robertson for her copy-editing and to Rebecca Lee for her editorial coordination.
Many thanks to Tracy Behar and Michael Pietsch of Little, Brown for lots of useful ideas and guidance, and to their colleagues Christina Rodriguez and Peggy Freudenthal for all their editorial and production work.
Thanks also to my friends and family who read through the shabby initial drafts and gave lots of useful feedback and ideas, especially Dr. Nikki Dibben, Utkarsha Joshi, Libby Grimshaw, Angela Melamed, Dr. Steve Dance, Tony Langtry, Mini Grey (and Herbie), Rod O’Connor, Dr. Donal McNally, Mike Smeeton, Clem Young, Dr. John Dowden, Whit, Arthur Jurgens and, of course, Queenie (my mother). Thanks are also due to my composition tutor, Dr. George Nicholson.
Special thanks to Jo Grey for the photographs.
A gold-medal-order-of-merit is due to my girlfriend Kim Jurgens for her excellent proof-reading, encouragement and help with the artwork—and for preventing me from throwing my laptop and/or printer out of the dining-room window on numerous occasions.
Finally, the platinum award for suggestions, corrections and back-up information is awarded to my unfeasibly well-informed friend John Wykes.
Having handed out these justifiable honors, I see no reason why I should go the whole hog and admit responsibility for any errors, omissions or other bad stuff. I think any blame involved should be borne by my secondary school geography teacher, Mr. Nigel Jones, of 14b Montebank Close, Eccles, Lancashire. Please send any negative comments, lawsuits or demands for compensation directly to him at the above address.