Now that we have reached the end of Alice’s journey, I have so many people to thank. The last few years, writing Alice’s adventures, have been absolutely wonderful and not only because I got to eat a lot of cake. Thank you as always to Joanna Moult, who wins every medal imaginable for being the best agent in the world. Alice’s incredible editor, Fiona Scoble, is also up on that podium. Thank you for all the care you take and for always challenging me to tell Alice’s story in the best way I can. Thank you, also, to Halimah Manan and Nicki Lampon for helping me get the ciphers spot on so that we could cram as much code-breaking as possible into this book.
I could not have written Hugo’s character without help and guidance from the wonderful writer Sally Doherty, who helped me to write Hugo’s experiences more accurately. Thank you for your time and skill and for sharing so much with me, and thank you also to Jenny Ireland for her additional advice.
Thank you to everyone at Nosy Crow, especially Nic Theobold and Elisabetta Barbazza for their amazing design work on Alice’s covers and to the 238incredible publicity powerhouse Hannah Prutton, who I’m sure is actually at least four people. Thank you to the rights team, who champion Alice across the world. And, of course, huge thanks to Beatriz Castro. Beatriz, your illustrations make my heart sing (and my pigeon-mad sister is particularly grateful for how you have captured Columba).
And to you, my lovely readers, thank you, thank you, thank you. I have been so touched by how much readers, teachers, librarians and booksellers have supported Alice’s adventures. I’ve loved meeting you and talking to you.
As always, my friends and family have been amazing, especially my awesome husband, Neil, who puts up with my mountains of puzzle books and ferried me to Bletchley Park so I could immerse myself in codes again. Finally, to my sister, Liz – I finally got one of the brilliant carrier pigeons into a book for you. I hope I reflected the bravery and skill of the real life members of Operation Columba – the great messenger pigeons who contributed so much to the Allies’ war effort.
Thank you all.
Sarah xxx