to my colleagues, many of whom have devoted far more hours to direct patient care through this pandemic than I have. There are scores of them deserving of thanks, but special mention must be made of Andrew Watson, Angela Colburn-Veitch, Anne Nicolson, Bean Dhaun, Becky Sutherland, Carey Lunan, Cathy Grant, Charlie Siderfin, Claire Gordon, Claudia Galante, Colin Speight, Digby Thomas, Eileen Sanderson, Fiona Wright, Gareth Evans, Geraldine Fraser, Helen Britton, Ishbel White, Janis Blair, Jenna Pemberton, John Budd, Justin Perry, Karen Stevenson, Kate Megaw, Laura Muir, Lesley Dawson, Lynsay McDonald, Michaela Johnson, Mimi Cogliano, Nicola Gray, Peter Dorward, Rankin Barr, Sharon Lawson, Sheila Ross, Sian Tucker, Tina Brown and Wojtek Wojcik.
It often feels as if I have two sides to my mind and my life: medicine and writing work together like the left and right feet of a steady gait, or the left and right eyes that give depth to vision. Thanks are due also to my colleagues over on the other side, at Profile Books. We’d never worked on a book together quite like this one; the trust and confidence shown by Cecily Gayford and Andrew Franklin has been immense, and immensely appreciated. Thanks also to Graeme Hall, Penny Daniel, Valentina Zanca, Flora Willis, Peter Dyer, Jack Smyth and Sally Holloway at Profile, and to Clare Longrigg and David Wolf who first commissioned me to write about the pandemic as seen from the community, for Long Reads in the Guardian in March and May 2020. I’m indebted to the genius of James Robertson, and to his generosity in permitting me to quote from ‘Hippocrates in Queen Street’. To my agent Jenny Brown for all the coffee, cake, and putting up with me all these years. And finally, much gratitude and love to Esa.