This is the book I have wanted to write since I was a teenager, reading history books and wondering where all the girls were. I’m incredibly lucky to have been able to do it like this, and have enjoyed (almost) every moment of it (footnotes aside). Like all books, it’s been years in the making, and a huge number of people have helped it and me on our way. Numerous colleagues and friends read chapters, advised on the publishing process, shared and discussed source material and general writing wisdom; thanks particularly to Sophie Ambler, Nicole Bertzen, Kirsten Claiden-Yardley, Vanessa de Cruz Medina, Heather Darsie, Caroline Dunn, Joanne Edge, José Escribano Páez, Catherine Fletcher, Rafael M. Girón Pascual, Steven Gunn, Courtney Herber, Eva Johanna Holmberg, Lauren Johnson, Lauren Mackay, Rocío Martínez López, Paula Martínez Hernández, Joseph Massey, Shannon McSheffrey, Aidan Norrie, Joanne Paul, Laura Richmond, Gareth Russell, Alexander Samson, Jade Scott and James Taffe. I owe a debt, too, to the many non-Tudor friends who have put up with me and it and me writing it, and cheer-led the whole process: Jennifer and Peyma Barekat, Dion Georgiou and Rachel Topham especially.
My agent Adam Gauntlett and editors Maddy Price and Kate Moreton ‘got’ what I was trying to do from the beginning and have helped me shape it into the best book it could be – collaborative processes for the win!
To those unnamed souls who made me keep at it out of spite, thank you; rage-writing is surprisingly effective. To the cats who blessed the endeavour by walking over me, my papers and my laptop at various points, we all know that no book is fully complete without feline assistance. Nor could I have kept going without regular doses of caffeine and conversation in Fred’s coffee shop in Crofton Park, especially with Annie.
To my sister Lyndsey, here we are yet again. There’s no goat in this book as requested because, astonishingly, I couldn’t find one. BUT there is a parrot – a different parrot this time – and a nice spaniel.
If I’ve missed anyone out here it’s entirely my own fault for failing to keep track of the many amazing people I have in my professional and personal lives. Any errors that remain in the text are unequivocally my own.