Acknowledgements

It’s been a difficult couple of years for everyone, so I’d like to extend an extra special thank you to the editors, designers and Sales and Marketing folk at Bloomsbury for all their efforts to keep everything running during 2020–21. There have been tough times for booksellers, festival organisers and librarians too, but I’d like to thank them for their continued support of authors in some really exceptional circumstances. We’re all very grateful! Thank you to Seb Burnett for once again putting his distinctive and hilarious mark on the world of the Smidgens with his brilliant illustrations. Finally, thank you so much to my departing editor, Lucy Mackay-Sim, who has been a patient, encouraging and inspiring guide through five books! I couldn’t have done this without her and I wish her the very best in her new adventures.