My most excellent editor, Martha Ashby, for asking me if I’d ever thought about writing a contemporary retelling of Vanity Fair, putting up with backchat in the comment boxes and saving me from several counts of libel. Thanks also to Kimberley Young and the team at HarperCollins.
My agent, Rebecca Ritchie, or The Other Becky as she’s now known, for cheerleading me through a really tight deadline.
Simon Fox was a firm but fair copyeditor. My aunt Lesley Lawson seemed to be the only person in Britain who’d actually read Vanity Fair and could listen to me wondering aloud how to parse the Napoleonic Wars into the modern day. Eileen Coulter hadn’t read Vanity Fair but she was still happy to listen to me banging on about it.
And to all the people who have ever wronged me, thank you. Every uncharitable thought that you’ve ever made me thunk, I channelled into Ms Becky Sharp. I couldn’t have done it without you.