The events and characters in this book are entirely fictional, but I have consulted many people in the course of my research. For their expertise on vintage cars, I am grateful to Donal Byrne and Donal Morrissy. Neal Massey advised me on the ins and outs of a burial at sea. Aengas Mac Grianna was kind enough to talk to me about his experiences on Celebrity MasterChef Ireland, while Mairéad Delaney’s vast knowledge of the Abbey Theater’s history was a great resource—to her and all the staff behind the scenes at the Abbey, my sincere thanks. To the late Garry Henderson, I owe the Hellmann’s mayonnaise story as well as the beautiful “Fiddler’s Green,” a verse of which is included by kind permission of John Conolly. For those readers who have a day-to-day memory of the summer of 2013, I confess that I have bent the weather in places to suit my purposes. The bit about the long, hot summer, I did not make up.
My agent Marianne Gunn O’Connor has been a stalwart support, as has her sub-agent Vicki Satlow. My former colleagues in RTÉ have been unfailingly kind. Paul Durcan stepped forward with encouragement when I most needed it. Margaret Daly and Cormac Kinsella offered their wisdom and expertise most generously. To all of them, a warm thank-you.
My editors Rebecca Saunders and Helen Atsma worked hard to make this book the best book it could be. I am hugely grateful to both of them. Thanks also to Kati Nicholl, Joanna Smyth and Jane Selley for their valuable input. It has been my pleasure to work with Manpreet Grewal, Tamsyn Berryman, Maddie West and Stephanie Melrose from Little, Brown in London. Breda Purdue and Jim Binchy along with Siobhán Tierney and all the team at Hachette in Dublin have been, as always, wonderful.
Mary Reynolds and Karen Coleman Muldowney helped in different but important ways. So too did Ray Murphy and Margaret Dunne. Hilary McGouran and Valerie Bistany read the book at various stages in its development, and their suggestions were enormously helpful. Áine Lawlor was a valuable early reader as were Sara Burke and Aoife Kavanagh. Finally and most importantly, I am grateful for the support of my family in encouraging me on this path I’ve chosen. I want to thank my brother Kevin and my sister Meg for their faith in me, and their love. My father Des, for his constant friendship and wise counsel; he also bore with good grace the theft of some of his gentle eccentricities. For Mark and Lucy and Clara, there are not enough words.