To Patrick Mackie, Stephen Brown and John Hatt, who read the book in many versions, with great patience, sympathy and intelligence, and who not only improved it immeasurably but also gave me the confidence to cut nearly 300 pages of the text. To Robin Dennis, who came in at the last moment and worked her way deftly through the prose. To Andy Connell and Alastair Duncan, who provided a wise and rapid review of some of my local history.
To Felix Martin and Tommy Wide, who brought the eyes of friends to the story itself.
To Catherine Anderson, who helped me plan the solo walk. To Clare Dodd, who supported all the logistics of the journey and then transcribed almost 300,000 words of interviews from tapes, and to many others who worked closely with me throughout.
I was very lucky to have Dan Franklin as my editor. His faith in the project from the beginning and throughout is what made this project possible. He read with immense care and intelligence in draft after draft. And he gave me the unique gift of time, reworking the schedule to make sure that the book in the end was ‘right’. I have never worked with such a patient and understanding editor and I don’t think I shall ever find another like him.
Thank you also to Clare Alexander for championing me and backing me through the last few years. And to, my father’s friend, Kevin Baverstock, who having done all the maps for the book which he and my father wrote about the Battle of Rauray, with great care and generosity did all the maps for this book as well.
And finally to Shoshana, my best companion, and to my mother, two people who should have dominated the book, but who chose to remain on the sidelines, and supported it with so much love, energy and tolerance of antique obsessions and late nights throughout.
Passages quoted from ‘Scotland, Small?’ and ‘Wheesht, Wheesht’ by Hugh MacDiarmid (Selected Poetry, 2004) are copyrighted and are reprinted here by kind permission of Carcanet Press Limited, Manchester, UK.
Lines from ‘Lament of the Frontier Guard’ by Ezra Pound are reprinted by kind permission of Faber & Faber Ltd.