A big ‘thank you’ to: Sheila Ableman, my friend and agent; Kathy Rooney, Alana Clogan, Sophia Blackwell and the team at Bloomsbury; Sandra Howgate for her delightfully quirky drawings; Colin Dexter for his kind quote; Louisa for inspiring me and for editing; Robin for ‘objective correlative’; Crispin and Nichola for great advice, and Crispin for ’acedia’, ‘isomorphic’ and ‘obloquy’; and to Dom, Alex, Jasper, Digger Louisa, Feras, Piers, John, Paul, Harry, Amanda, Nigel, Michael H., Lady Murton, my wonderful 10 siblings and Rosemary for all their support.
Also a special expression of gratitude to the readers of The Daily Telegraph, who so generously drew my attention to their favourite words: Gaetana Trippetti (for ‘Lucullan’); Eva Amann (for ‘Mephistophelean’); C. Willgoose (for ‘cynosure’ and many others); Klara Banaszak (for ‘swingeing’); Mike Roberts (for ‘threnody’); Professor John Drearden (for too many to list here); Marc Gonsalves (for ‘pastiche’); Victoria Godfrey (for ‘valetudinarian’); Patricia Law (for reams of useful words); David Bissell (for ‘periphrasis’); Jack McCoull (for ‘adumbrate’); Bonnie Shortt (for ‘subfusc’); Harry Smith, as well as Sandra Noble (both – independently – for ‘supererogation’); Barbara Thatcher (for ‘basilisk’); Sue Lessels, as well as Robert Hunt, Tony Darrah and Mike Wicking (all for pointing out – independently – the true etymology of ‘sesquipedalian’); Vicky Liddell (for ‘Stygian’); Des Taylor (for ‘animadversion’); Chris Brooker (for so many that there’s no room to list them); Mike Humphries (for ‘virago’); William Alexander (for ‘abnegate’); Derek Aldred (for ‘plosive’); Sheila Williams (for ‘defenestrate’); Reg Vallintine, as well as Bill Hudson (both – independently – for ‘concupiscent’); Terry Walker (for ‘lubricious’); Gavin Inglis (for ‘persiflage’); Mickie Wynne-Davies, John Maskell and Ann Spencer (all – independently – for ‘verisimilitude’); Madeleine Thomas (for ‘gonzo’); John Conway (for ‘exegesis’); Tamara Shanks (for ‘sinecure’); Peter Bird, as well as V. Phillips (both – independently – for ‘divagating’); Brian Gould, as well as John Southern (both – independently – for ‘eleemosynary’); Richard Munday (for ‘pabulum’); Doug Sollars (for ‘troglodyte’); Simon Bryden-Brook (for ‘nugatory’); Roger Marjoribanks (for ‘pullulating’); Diggory Seacombe (for ‘zeugma’); and all other readers for their kind suggestions.
Please contact me with views, criticisms and all else at: hubert_vandenbergh@yahoo.co.uk