There are so many people who have helped in one way or another with this book, sharing a passion for fires, food, housework and history. Many more have put up with me spouting forth on these subjects for years. But I really owe a particular debt to Eleanor Lowe, Jacqueline Warren, Paul Hargreaves, Mark Goodman, Katherine Adams, Natalie Stewart, Karl Robinson, Joan Garlick, Shona Rutherford, Paul Binns, Jon Emmett, Adrian Braddock, James Biddlecombe, Cathy Flowerbond, Jo Briffet, Hannah Miller and the late Paula Senior who have tended fires, fermented urine, beaten the living daylights out of laundry, and searched through countless original records alongside me.
I owe a debt of thanks to the Weald and Downland Museum, who have allowed me to practise and experiment over many years in their fabulous buildings, gardens and woodlands and to their staff and volunteers who have donned their aprons and joined in the messy work. I am in debt too to Lord Manners for letting me loose upon the fires, ovens and service spaces at Haddon Hall, to the Mary Rose Trust, The National Trust, Sulgrave Manor, St Fagans National Museum of History, Avoncroft Museum of Buildings, Chiltern Open Air Museum, John Moore Museum, The Weaver’s House Spon End, who have all given me the opportunity to cook and clean, make charcoal and chop wood in the historic structures under their care.
My thanks too to the staff at Cheshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Devon, Hertfordshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire Record Offices who have been unfailingly helpful and patient.
I must also thank – and you should too – the wonderful team at Michael O’Mara books who have helped to haul my ungainly mess of writing into some sort of shape. If there are any good bits that seem to make sense and flow nicely that is all down to them, any remaining chaos is all my own fault. In particular I would like to thank Fiona Slater, Robin Dennis and Gabriella Nemeth for mammoth word wrestling, Aubrey Smith for his lovely illustrations and Judith Palmer for her invaluable picture research.
Finally I would like to thank Mark and Eve for many, many interesting and supportive conversations and Ben for putting up with them all.