My grateful thanks to Alison Duce, the Collections Manager at the Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield, for her valuable help and advice. And for his continuing support and encouragement my sincere thanks to Mike Hodgson, of Thorpe Camp Visitor Centre at Tattershall Thorpe, Lincolnshire, which is dedicated to the history of RAF Woodhall Spa and the squadrons that operated from the airfield during World War II. Thank you, too, to Steve Roberts of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight reenactment group, whom I met at a 1940s weekend at Thorpe Camp. Our chat was extremely helpful – thank you.
A great many sources have been used in the research for this novel, but I must mention Sheffield in the 1930s by Peter Harvey (Sheaf Publishing Ltd in association with The Star, 1993).
Although in this book I have used real place names, streets and even actual buildings in both Sheffield and Ashford-in-the-Water, the characters and events in the story are entirely fictitious.
My love and thanks to my family and friends for their constant encouragement, especially those who read the script in the early stages; David Dickinson, Fred Hill and Pauline Griggs. And never forgetting my wonderful agent, Darley Anderson, and his team, and my editor, Trisha Jackson, and all the team at Pan Macmillan.