The novel exists in a world where times, locations, languages and cultures are laid one over the other with a cavalier disregard for historical and geographical fact, as does Shakespeare and Wilkins’s play. But there are mistakes and there are mistakes. I want to thank the following people both for helping me to weed out the unwanted kind and for helping me shape the book as a whole: Carole Bourne-Taylor, Adam Brown, Clare Brown, Apostolos Doxiades, Oskar Moshenska, Liv Robinson, Duncan Rourke, Emma Smith and Bill Tollitt.
My editors, Clara Farmer at Chatto and Bill Thomas at Doubleday, are wise, thorough and excellent company.
I owe my agent, Clare Alexander, more than I can say.
Like everything else I’ve written for the last twenty-five years this novel would not have existed without the help of Sos Eltis, my wife, best friend and sternest editor.