I COULD NOT HAVE written this book without the support of some truly wonderful people:
Bill Pursel, Christina Rice, Virginia Nicholson, Gabriella Apicella, Maureen Brown, Naomi Pieris, Huston Huddleston, Dr. L. Ruddick, Suzanne Sumner Ferry, Yessenia Santos, Sandi Silbert, Kathleen Felesina, Ian Bevans, Jay Kanter, Joseph Lionetti, Emily Wittenberg, the late John Hazell, Lucy Vance Seligson, David Sandrich, Cathy Sandrich Gelfond, Tim Linehan, Peter Fonagy, and Chido Muchemwa have all been extremely gracious in providing support, information, or both. Barbara Bair from the Library of Congress went above and beyond to help me with my research, and I am eternally grateful.
To Suzie Kennedy, Susan Griffiths, Andrea Pryke, Tara Hanks, Linda Kerridge, and those people who contributed memories anonymously, I’m so very grateful for your candor, honesty, bravery, and, of course, your stories. Thanks also to my friends and readers for the constant encouragement shown toward me and my books, and to Marilyn’s fans for keeping her unique light burning.
A HUGE thank you must go to my editor, Cindy De La Hoz, for bringing this project to me and for helping it to grow. Cindy, I sincerely hope that we work on many more projects together! I’d also like to thank Amber Morris, Susan VanHecke, and everyone at Running Press for supporting this book, as well as my agent, Robert Smith, and his personal assistant, Gemma Quinn.
A big hug and thank you must go to Mum, Dad, Paul, Wendy, and Angelina, who have supported my writing career since day one. I love you all very much! And to my husband, Richard, and daughter, Daisy: Thank you for the laughs, hugs, and support. I love you to the moon and back. I’d like to add that I’m especially proud and grateful to Daisy for supplying me with her thoughts on how Marilyn is inspiring her generation.
To anyone I may have mistakenly missed, I’m so sorry for the oversight, but thank you too. x