This book is the product of the generosity of others, who have given so much of their time and expertise assisting with my endeavours.
I would like to thank Joel and Bob Gilbert, Paul Stancliffe at the British Trust for Ornithology, Florence Wilkinson at Warblr, Keith Betton at the Hampshire Ornithological Society, Rob Shepherd, Andy Page, Paul Holt, Francis Hickenbottom and Lesley Taylor at the Wakefield Naturalists’ Society, the staff at the West Yorkshire Archive Service and British Library, Bristol Ornithological Club, Michael Gibson, Mark Atherton, Historic Royal Palaces, Doug Simpson, David Darrell-Lambert, Chris Booth, Fran Flett Hollinrake and Andrew Hollinrake, Tom Muir, Sarah-Jane and Elliot Manarin, Nigel Brown, Igraine Skelton, Ian Rutherford, Roger Lovegrove, and, posthumously, Derek Ratcliffe, whose passion and knowledge of ravens is as inspiring as it is unparalleled and whom I would have loved to have met.
I am most grateful to my Bloomsbury editors Alice Ward and Jim Martin for their advice and unwavering enthusiasm for my ideas.
I am also indebted to my Telegraph editors Vicki Harper, Jessamy Calkin and Jane Bruton for all their support, and Liz Hunt for the years she spent beating my copy into shape.
My apologies to those other people I have no doubt missed out.
Finally to my family, friends and journalist colleagues whom I have bored and neglected in equal measure over the course of writing this book, my mum for her razor-sharp proofreading and Jon Day for his invaluable advice with final drafts.
All remaining mistakes are my own doing.