This is my first novel. It has been an immensely enjoyable but very different writing experience from non-fiction and I should like to thank my talented editor Lennie Goodings for all her guidance along this new path. She is not alone at Virago and Little, Brown in her help. Vivien Redman copyedited the manuscript with great care, along with Mari Roberts and Jenny Page. Susan de Soissons, Judith Greenberg and Naomi Doerge have helped launch Park Lane into the world. Thanks, too, to Victoria Pepe for her views. The encouragement of my agent, the wonderful Gill Coleridge, has been with me from the start and thank you also to her assistant Cara Jones. In the US, both Park Lane and I have been equally well agented by Melanie Jackson, who has again delivered me into the talented hands of Vicky Wilson and I am thrilled to be working with her once more. As I am with the immensely capable Andrea Robinson and Russell Perreault of Vintage, both of whom worked with me on The Bolter. Finally, Park Lane could not have been written without the support and love of my friends, and my family. Thank you George for helping me find the time and space to finish. And thank you Luke and Liberty. I promise I will try to write a children’s book before you are too old to read it.