· · ·  Acknowledgements  · · ·

This novel is based loosely on events in the lives of Peggy Guggenheim, her lover Douglas Garman, and their respective daughters Pegeen Vail and Deborah Garman, who lived together in Sussex from 1934 to 1937. The characters and setting have been fictionalised, but essential to me in researching this book was Peggy’s own outrageous, tantalising, inconsistent account of her life, Out of This Century: Confessions of an Art Addict. Among many other useful books were Anton Gill’s Peggy Guggenheim: The Life of an Art Addict and, for its wonderfully gutsy evocation of life in service, Below Stairs, by Margaret Powell.

I’d like to thank Cath Aldworth and Marge Phillips for sharing their fascinating recollections of the mid-1930s with me. Both ladies were wonderful company and extremely generous.

Thanks to Pete Ayrton, John Williams, Rebecca Gray and the team at Serpent’s Tail, and to my agent, David Riding, for their commitment to this book. For their advice on drafts, I am grateful to Naomi Foyle, Claire Harries, Kai Merriott and Lorna Thorpe, and I remain deeply indebted to David Swann, who read the first half and convinced me it was going to be all right. Special thanks to my parents for their support, and to my brother Owen for his expertise on every subject. My greatest debt, as always, is to my husband Hugh Dunkerley, who is also my first and best reader.