Acknowledgements

My warmest thanks are due to the writer Rachel Abbott without whose help, guidance and encouragement this book may never have reached the light of day. You’re a diamond!

Thanks are also due to my agent Lizzy Kremer for her invaluable advice and to my publisher Jocasta Hamilton who, together with Rose Waddilove, has been a pleasure to work with.

Add to them, my first readers: the poets Paul Paterson and Dr John Mackay. Number one god-daughter Ria Bradley, Liz Winters, Mary Bradley, Bernard McPhilemy, Patricia Bartlett, Jo Jordan, Christopher Rowley, Sarah Simpkins, Rosemarie Egan, Ann Hodgson, Clare Hanbury, Jane Margaret Crust, Lee Flewitt, Isabel Picornell, Jacqueline Gianelli, Ruth Hughes, Nor James, Tracy Bostian, Monica Lynch, Clare Evans, Jem Kathrens and Neil Paterson.