Primarily I must thank those who were kind enough to share their memories of Terry Nation, to supply additional information, to put me in touch with others or simply to point me in the right direction when I might otherwise have got lost:
Alan Simpson, Anthony Brockway, Barry Cryer, Beryl Vertue, Brian Clemens, Carey Clifford, Charles Braham, Cy Town, David Gooderson, David Foster-Smith, David Howe, David Richardson, Deb Boultwood, Dudley Sutton, Gareth Owen, Harry Greene, Ian Dickerson, Jaz Wiseman, Jonathan Bignell, John Flaxman, Mat Irvine, Michelle Coomber, Paul Fishman, Peter Purves, Ray Galton, Sir Roger Moore, Roy Baines, Stan Stennett, Tanya Howarth, Terrance Dicks, Tessa Le Bars, Tony Tanner, Trevor Hoyle and Wyn Calvin.
I’m grateful to all of them and to those who wished not to be named (or whom I inadvertently forgot to mention).
In particular, my thanks to Alan Stevens, Mark Oliver, Steve Groves and Stuart Cooper, who allowed me advance access to material in order that I could meet my deadlines, and to Richard Cross for being helpful beyond the call of duty.
Lance Parkin and Paul Magrs were kind enough to read this in its unpolished first draft and make extremely helpful comments, suggestions and corrections.
Obviously none of the above should be considered to condone the contents of this book. Apologies too to everyone whose work and words I’ve quoted in such a cavalier fashion, probably missing all the important points.
As ever, there’s a whole heap of people at Aurum without whose contributions this book would never have made it to the shelves, including: Barbara Phelan, Bill McCreadie, Graham Coster, Graham Eames, Jodie Mullish, Liz Somers and Natalie Ridgway. Mark Swan designed the jacket and Steve Gove was a superb text editor.
I continue to be grateful for the support and advice of Thamasin Marsh, who lived with this project for its entire duration.
Finally, and especially, my thanks to my editor, Sam Harrison, whose suggestion this book was, and who has been hugely helpful throughout. It’s been a pleasure working with him, and any complaints about anything you have read should be addressed directly to him.
This book is dedicated to Harry Greene and John Summers, two men I’ve been privileged to know and who also happened to know Terry Nation.