I would like to thank the following for the help and support they have given me in the making of this book. Needless to say I take full responsibility for the facts drawn from my research into marine science which forms the backdrop to much of the narrative.
Peter Tyack, senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Cape Cod.
Mike Fedak, Professor at the Marine Mammal Research Unit, St Andrews University.
Dr Susan Whiten, senior lecturer in the Bute Medical School, St Andrews University, where she spends much of her spare time diving in the chilly waters of the Firth of Forth in the company of seals.
Tecumseh Fitch, Professor of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna.
Peter Corkeron, Visiting Fellow at the Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and Sophie van Parijs, leader of the Large Whale Group at the North East Fisheries Science Centre, Woods Hole. Peter and Sophie are a husband and wife team who live in Woods Hole, Cape Cod, and who very generously shared their time and knowledge with me during my research there in the spring of 2007.
Dr Martin Scurr of London, who helped me to understand how Leo Kemp survived for such a long period on the fruits of the Cape Cod foreshore.
David and Susan Balderstone, who are both old friends from my days as a Middle East correspondent based in Beirut and who now live in Melbourne. They gave me invaluable background into Leo Kemp’s life as a young boy growing up in Mornington.
The Editor of the Cape Cod Times, Paul Pronovost, who patiently answered by seemingly endless queries about life and times on the Cape today.
Jo Fitzbak, who took me out to view the seal population off Chatham harbour and talked with great insight into the problems of the fishing industry.
Robert Lacey of HarperCollins kindly read the manuscript first and suggested many changes which were hugely helpful.
Clare Hey, who as my editor at HarperCollins came up with all the right ideas and patiently dealt with my occasional objections to them.
Caroline Johnston, who helped as ever with tea and sympathy when the darkness descended.
Above all to my agent Sophie Hicks, who loved this book from the start and made sure that I finished it. I could not have written it without her help and encouragement.
Finally heartfelt thanks to my wife Amanda without whom this book would not have been written and to Emily, Elizabeth and Nicholas for urging me to tell them endless bedtime stories all those years ago.