Acknowledgements

WITHOUT LONG HOURS IN a hammock at Molino di Metalliano (gazing up at Cortona’s Etruscan walls) this book would either have been written a whole lot quicker — or not at all. So thank you, right off the top, to Dan and Sharon Callahan.

And without generous help from the Canada Council for the Arts, so many books in our country would not have been written, including this one.

ALL WRITING IS TRAVELLING, but with this novel I stepped into spheres I’d previously only glimpsed. Most rewarding on that journey have been not just the detailed help and advice I’ve received, and the valuable things I’ve learned from people with extremely demanding lives, but the friendships along the way.

IN THE WORLD OF the Etruscans:

Many thanks to Dr. Greg Warden, Director of the Mugello Archaeological Project at Poggio Colla north of Florence, who so generously, over so much time, has given me not just the benefit of his insight into the Etruscans and the archaeological process as a whole, but also courage --

And to: Sybille Haynes, author of the marvelous Etruscan Civilization: A Cultural History for so amiably sharing her wisdom and knowledge; Dr. Eric Nielsen, Director of the excavations at Poggio Civitate near Murlo, for replies to detailed questions; Nancy de Grummond, for her important works including (specific to this novel) A Guide to Etruscan Mirrors; Susan Stock, Metals Conservator at the Royal Ontario Museum, for crucial details including the “raking light” and the “pseudomorph”; Krysia Spirydowicz, Professor of Artifact Conservation at Queen’s University, for information about work in an archaeological conservation lab and in the field; Sarah Kupperberg, for insights into Etruscan landscape archaeology; Suzanne Lopez: for the tombaroli.

And for illuminations in a broader context: Kathryn Gleason, Cornell University, whose work on the excavation of ancient gardens led Clare Livingston to the gardens of King Herod; the late Dr. Wilhemina Jashemski, for fascinating phone interviews about her life work of excavating the gardens of Pompeii; artist Victoria I, for sharing the experience of working with Dr. Jashemski on A Pompeian Herbal; Naomi Miller, University of Pennsylvania, for conversations about art, archaeology, archaeobotany, palaeoethnobotany — and the prime importance of “a high tolerance for ambiguity”; Michelle Wollstonecroft, for sharing her work at Çatalhöyük; Brian Fagan, for the wide-ranging resource of his many books and for cordial replies; Jason Jeandron, of Archaeological Prospectors in New Brunswick, not only for so aptly quoting Winston Churchill, “The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see,” but, in particular, for the gradiometer and its quirks.

And lastly in the world of archaeology — sadly — huge thanks to the late Andrew Sherratt, archaeologist and world pre-historian, for his many seminal written works — and for a generous and lively conversation during which one of my characters got led permanently off the beaten track.

AT THE START I knew little of botanical art, except that I thought I knew what I liked. So I am particularly grateful to the internationally exhibited artist Mary Comber Miles, for her insights into this discipline (which demands sensitivity and acuity both in art and in science) and for her friendship. And to Leslie Bohm for an entire morning of watching her paint a magnolia spray, while she told me about scientific work in the botany lab.

NOW THE IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: I hold none of the above responsible for glitches, inaccuracies, or infelicities. Nor will any of you find yourselves in this novel. And if I have played around with the topography, here and there, well come on — this is a work of fiction.

DURING THE VOYAGE OF the book itself, I had invaluable feedback from my daughter Shaena Lambert, and from Eva Stachniak, Theresa Kishkan, Jamie Evrard, Jennifer Glossop and Blanche Howard. And thanks to Kathleen Conroy for the little goats.

I owe such gratitude, too, to my children and their partners: Jamie and Alexita Lambert, Shaena Lambert and Bob Penner, John and Marie Lambert, and to all the rest of my family near and far, for the delight and interest of having them in my life. Above all I am so thankful to my husband Douglas, my partner in travel and rest, for his love and support in every way.

Finally, I count myself lucky indeed for the wise, insightful editorial skills of Marc Côté — and for the excellent crew at Cormorant Books in bringing The Whirling Girl to light.