I am especially grateful to those I had the privilege of interviewing for this book: Brigitte Askonas, Gary Beauchamp, Pamela Bjorkman, Walter Bodmer, Leslie Brent, Derrick Brewerton, Mary Carrington, Margaret Dallman, Mark Davis, Elizabeth Dexter, Peter Doherty, Ron Germain, Klas Kärre, Jim Kaufman, Rolf Kiessling, Steve Marsh, Polly Matzinger, Hugh McDevitt, Andrew McMichael, Charles Medawar, Avrion Mitchison, Ashley Moffett, Jon van Rood, Eric Schadt, Carla Shatz, Elizabeth Simpson, Andrew Strominger, Jack Strominger, Alain Townsend, Bruce Walker, Claus Wedekind, Wayne Yokoyama and Rolf Zinkernagel. Several discussions with Peter Parham were particularly influential.
I also thank Steve Marsh and the team at Anthony Nolan, who performed the HLA typing for my wife and me. Others who helped me to address specific issues while writing this book include Danny Altmann, Jorge Carneiro, Andrew Giddy, Salim Khakoo, Ofer Mandelboim, Jim McCluskey, Maryam Mehrabi, Sophie Pageon, Marco Purbhoo and Anton van der Merwe. I’m also indebted to those who commented on early versions of some or all of the text: Brigitte Askonas, Mary Carrington, George Cohen, Richard Dawkins, Peter Doherty, Steve Marsh, Peter Parham, Elizabeth Simpson, Jack Strominger and Claus Wedekind. Of course, any remaining errors are my responsibility alone.
Many others supported me while writing this book, including members of my research team, the senior faculty at Imperial College London, who allowed me to take a year’s sabbatical leave, and faculty at the University of Manchester, where I completed the project. Armand Leroi, author of Mutants, was exceptionally helpful throughout, pushing me to develop my ideas more carefully at the outset and showing me where to rework the text at the end. Caroline Hardman, my agent initially at the Christopher Little Literary Agency and now at Hardman and Swainson, has been fantastic throughout and gave useful feedback at every stage. Sarah Levitt at the Zoë Pagnamenta Agency also had an important input in improving my text. Alice Brown, Lucy Hairsine, Clive Gerner and Joel Rickett all helped my proposal get noticed early on.
I’m indebted to Stefan McGrath and William Goodlad at Penguin Press, who supported this project at the outset. My editor at Penguin Press, Thomas Penn, author of The Winter King, had a wonderful influence on my writing and the structure of this book. My editor at OUP, Joan Bossert, also made many very helpful, formative suggestions. I’m also grateful to David Watson, who carefully copy-edited my text. Finally, my wife, Katie, edited the book first and suggested many important changes; I thank her, and our kids, Briony and Jack, for encouraging me throughout and sharing the journey.