Thanks are first due to the Royal Society of Literature and the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, whose non-fiction award immeasurably benefited the book by allowing me to research more deeply without worrying about whether I’d be able to finish the job.
Writing this book would not have been possible without the generous assistance of numerous surgeons, cardiologists, physicians, clinical researchers and others. They invited me into their operating theatres, gave up their meal breaks to talk to me, offered introductions and tips, and lent me books and journal articles. In particular I wish to thank the following, who went out of their way to help in one way or another: Gianni Angelini, Nick Cheshire, Horatio Clare, David Cooper, Martin Elliott, Sir Terence English, Tony Gershlick, Andrew Grace, Marjan Jahangiri, Stephen Large, Marc de Leval, Duncan Macrae, Gavin Murphy, Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, John Pepper, Bernard Prendergast, Simon Redwood, Benny Rousso, Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, Babulal Sethia, Ulrich Sigwart, André Simon, Sanjay Sinha, David Taggart, Angela and Jay VanDerwerken, Francis Wells and Stephen Westaby.
I am also indebted to the staff of the Wellcome Library, my ‘office’ for much of the last two years, to the National Library of Medicine, and to Oregon Health and Science University Historical Collections and Archives for their assistance in tracking down several elusive documents.
Thanks also to my agent Patrick Walsh for his enthusiasm and advice, and to Stuart Williams and Anna-Sophia Watts at The Bodley Head, whose perceptive editorial suggestions made a huge difference to the final form of the text. To my family, for their advice and peerless grammar pedantry, and finally to my partner Jenny, for her unstinting support as well as tolerance for my endless boring medical questions (and even more boring surgical anecdotes).