ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Ellie Macklow-Smith, daughter of a very dear friend, who read the first few chapters, encouraged me to finish the story and then read the first full draft. Ellie loved Mary’s ‘sheer feminism’ and that ‘she doesn’t back down, she doesn’t let men and status put her off!’ Mary and Ellie have much in common!

Chloe Sackur, from Andersen, whose editorial notes were invaluable and who saved me from a couple of hilarious continuity errors, including not one but two very temporary babies!

I made use of factual information from the internet and Patricia Pierce’s book Jurassic Mary: Mary Anning and the Primeval Monsters (The History Press) but for everything else I just channelled Mary and her insistent voice in my head, telling me how it was for her, and of her pain at the loss of her father – something I could identify with only too well.