Although I conceived of this book in 2018, in fact these ideas had been five years or longer in the making already by then, as the preface describes. Perhaps this is why I have such a lot of people to thank for supporting me in my journey.
This being my first book, I really had no idea what I was doing when I set out to find a willing publisher. Mallory and Andrew Ladd shared their literary wisdom, and several other friends – especially Maria Nicholas and Tom Ebbutt – offered themselves as guinea pigs to read the initial book proposal.
I have not been short of people who have believed in the promise of this book and in my ability to write it: Kate Raworth gave generously of her time at a critical moment when I was about to give up; Rick Alexander has been unfailing in his enthusiasm for this project; James Perry helped me come up with the title; Kim Coupounas encouraged me to write the short paper that ballooned into a manuscript.
Numerous peers and colleagues, many of whom I have never had the opportunity to meet in person, gave me invaluable feedback on the manuscript or helped me to refine certain tricky points: Nina Boeger, David Coombs, Diane Coyle, Mike Hugman, Andrew Keay, Ioannis Lianos, Colin Mayer, Adam Ozanne, Hal Singer, Marshall Steinbaum, and Sandeep Vaheesan.
Harriet Brown, Hugo Foster and Simon Holmes read the whole thing cover to cover and their input can be seen in some big, and many small, changes that hopefully make the book more informative, more accurate and more enjoyable to read.
This book would not be worth reading but for the outstanding conceptual and editorial guidance I received from my agent, Rebecca Carter at Janklow and Nesbit, and my editor, Lydia Yadi at Penguin Random House. They took a chance on this book, and I am hugely grateful.
I want to thank the British Library and SSRN – two totally free and absolutely essential resources for my research.
Writing a book is an enormous undertaking for anyone, but when you have two young kids it can be an overwhelming prospect. For that one year I missed a lot and slept only a little. Malachi and Indigo, my cheeky two, deleted precious files, scribbled on my notes, shrieked in the background whilst I was trying to gather my thoughts. But then, how lucky am I? I am swimming in love and my kids are my constant reminder that a book is just a book and not nearly as important as dancing in the kitchen.
My mother-in-law, Laura Meagher, deserves ultimate credit for urging me to seize the moment and get my ideas out there back when I was otherwise occupied with feeding and nappy changing. It seemed impossible then, and now it is done. She was right.
Also right, always, is Hayane Dahmen. She read proposals, she read manuscripts, but most critically she gave me the pep talks I needed, when I needed them, and coming from her they meant everything.
I want to thank Kresh: when all I could see was a wall, they helped me find a door. I want to thank the Flatties, School Girls and Lips Choir – I find that if I always do things that I think would make them proud then I cannot go far wrong.
My family is everything – my parents, Nawroze and Iqbal, and my siblings, Neil and Melissa – they know who I am, and no book will change that. It’s a relief.
And finally to Dan. For once I have nothing to say because there is no way to thank you for steadying me from falling headlong into my own thoughts. Enjoy the quiet, it probably won’t last long.
January 2020