Stupidly, I can’t remember the name of the person I have to thank most of all for this book. The idea came about when my friend Jackie invited me to a ‘sex tech’ dinner she was hosting in London. Jackie works for a trendy tech start-up which had recently launched a range of ‘pretty’ and ‘elegant’ pastel-coloured vibrators, the sort of sculptural object that wouldn’t look out of place on a mantelpiece. Everyone going to the dinner would get given a vibrator, said Jackie. Free food and a free sex toy? I RSVP’ed immediately.
At this dinner, I sat next to a woman who told me a story which made me quite forget the vibrators. Some years before, she’d become pregnant with her boyfriend who’d upped and left halfway through her pregnancy. She was devastated: left alone, soon to have a baby and heartbroken. As a coping mechanism, she decided to write a list of what she was looking for in a man. It was a very specific list detailing physical attributes as well as character traits and his hopes for life. ‘And then I met him,’ she told me, with a shy smile. According to this woman whose name I cannot remember, a man with all the qualities on her list subsequently came into her life, took her small son on as his own and she was now grateful that her previous relationship had broken down.
Well, call me an old softie but I loved the romance of this and decided to write a story which included some sort of list. This book is the result and I am hugely grateful to both Jackie and the anonymous woman for sparking the idea.
After them, I am most thankful to the team who helped pull this book together. My agent, Becky Ritchie, continues to provide enormous support and terrific therapy. Emily Kitchin, my editor, is not only a very talented, unflappable and stupendously encouraging person, she is also incredibly cheerful on Twitter and I am a big fan of that. The whole team at HQ remain the dream to work with. On the editorial side, special thanks to Lisa Milton, Joe Thomas, Katrina Smedley, Mel Hayes and Jo Rose, who quite literally never seem to stop working. I’d also like to salute the production skills of Angie Dobbs, Halema Begum and Tom Keane and the colourful genius of Charlotte Phillips, who designed the cover *does actual salute from behind laptop*. Writing this against the backdrop of the news, as the coronavirus crisis deepens, I am in awe of the lengths everyone is going to in order that books continue to be published. Thank you.
I wrote much of this book while living in Norfolk, in a house I borrowed from the exceptionally kind de Stacpoole family. Every morning, I got up and wrote for several hours before striding out across the marsh and beaches of the North Norfolk coast thinking about Florence, Rory and Zach. I also visited Sandringham three times while up there, so I’d like to thank the Queen for that distraction as well as for the excellent shortbread sold in the Sandringham gift shop. Well worth a trip for that alone.
Family and friends, to say ‘I’d be lost without you’ is such a cliché. It’s also not true. I’d actually be nothing without you. Particularly at low moments, on bad days and during the weeks when life can feel heavy, you are everything to me and, although I often grumble about the WhatsApp groups, I’d much rather have them than not. Thank you all.