With thanks to my agent Peter Straus for his wisdom and invaluable encouragement; my editor Nicholas Pearson, a beacon of reassurance; and all those who helped to bring this book into being, in particular Lottie Fyfe, Fran Fabriczki, Beth Humphries, Jordan Mulligan, Matt Clacher, Naomi Mantin, Matthew Turner and Jack Smyth. Thanks, too, to Rosemary Davidson, Nigel Farndale, Mark Law, Tristan Kendrick, Mark Jagasia, John Thornley, Andrea Tumelty, Karen McCartney and Sara McCartney for their generosity with time and advice; the memory of Ed Victor, whose belief in my writing first got this book started; and my beloved husband and patient listener Rajeev Syal.
My enduring gratitude also goes to those individuals from all communities in Northern Ireland who – during the bleakest days of the Troubles and beyond – refused to accept cruelty as our normality.