Thanks, as ever, to my editor, Jane Wood, and agent, Rebecca Carter. Thanks to everyone at Quercus and Jank-low & Nesbit for working so hard on my behalf. Thanks to Marjorie Scott-Robinson and Lavender Jones for all the information about Brighton in the 1950s. For further details about the Hippodrome and its fight for survival, go to www.ourhippodrome.org.uk. For information and tours of the police cells in Bartholomew Square email: info@oldpolicecellsmuseum.org.uk. I should just add that Bartholomew Square, although definitely the headquarters of the Brighton police in the 1950s, was not actually called a square until the 1980s. This note is especially for Holly.
There are many real places in this book, including Lansdowne Road and Montpelier Crescent, but all the people and events are entirely imaginary.
Love and thanks, as always, to my husband Andy and our children, Alex and Juliet. This book is dedicated to Veronique Walker and Julie Williams with thanks for their constant support and friendship.
Elly Griffiths
2017