My first debt is to Colin Harris and his staff in the Special Collections Reading Room at the Bodleian Library, Oxford; my second is to the editors of Disraeli’s letters at the Disraeli Project at Queen’s University, Canada. I have drawn on the expertise of these scholars and librarians at every stage, and their work has made mine possible. Elsewhere I have been assisted in archives by the staff of the British Library, the London Library, the National Library of Scotland, the Rothschild Archive, and the Houghton Library at Harvard University. My thanks go to all of them, as well as to the manager of Hughenden and the occupier of Grosvenor Gate for showing me around the Disraelis’ houses. For permission to quote from manuscript material I thank the National Trust, the Rothschild Archive, the National Library of Scotland, and the British Library; and, as owners of the Abinger Papers and holders of the Hughenden Deposit (Disraeli Papers), the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. For permission to quote from the Letters of Benjamin Disraeli I acknowledge the University of Toronto Press. Extracts from Queen Victoria’s Journals appear by the permission of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
From its inception this book has been enabled by academic institutions and the friendship of those within them. The Warden and Fellows of St Antony’s College, Oxford, awarded me the Alistair Horne Fellowship in 2009–10 and gave me the opportunity to work without interruption on the Disraelis’ papers. My particular thanks go to Alistair Horne, and to the Warden, Margaret MacMillan, for making me so welcome. As a Visiting Scholar at Wolfson College, Oxford, from 2010–12 I benefited from the rich programme of activities and conversations at the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing, and from the boundless wisdom of the college’s President, Hermione Lee. In 2012–13 I was a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. I wrote the first draft of this book at Radcliffe and it has been shaped by my experiences there. To my meticulous Radcliffe Research Partners, Yen Pham and Carrie Tian, goes the credit for the accuracy of the notes and much else besides; to Judith Vichniac and the Fellowship Class of 2012–13 go my thanks for a magical year of Fellow feeling. I have revised my manuscript and completed my work on the Disraelis over the course of my first year as a lecturer in the Department of English and Film at the University of Exeter, and to my colleagues and students there I am grateful for new ideas and much inspiration. For help with particular questions I thank Judy Bogdanor, Hilary Clare, Angus Hawkins, Naomi Hicks, Katherine Ibbett, Mary Millar, Michel Pharand, Jane Ridley and Miranda Seymour. Alexandra Harris, Hermione Lee, Amanda Mackenzie Stuart, Candia McWilliam and Hilary Schor have all read and commented on drafts, and I could not have asked for a more erudite or constructive circle of readers. For their time and expertise I am more grateful than I can say. My agent Clare Alexander has been a pillar of strength, and I have been immensely lucky to work with two wonderful editors, Clara Farmer at Chatto & Windus and Ileene Smith at FSG. My thanks go too to Susannah Otter for all she has done during production. All mistakes remain my own.
Alexandra Harris, Aoife Ní Luanaigh, Michael, Amanda and Marianna Hay and Paul and Vron Santer have helped this book come to fruition in many and various ways, and to all of them I am beyond thankful. To Matthew and Freddy Santer goes the dedication and, with it, my love.