The support of friends and family make the writing possible and letters, emails and so on from readers make it fun. Huge thanks to my agent Annette Green, my editor Flora Rees and all at Headline for their advice and support. Particular thanks to David Downie and Alison Harris for their expert help guiding us round Paris; to artists Caroline de Peyrecave and Claire Zakiewicz for talking to me about their training and careers; to Richard Campbell at Lucie Campbell in Bond Street for showing me diamonds; Hervé Guyot for sharing his collection of photographs of the Paris floods and to Ahren Warner and Susan Powell for their help with the research. Thank you also to my husband Ned who arranged so much of our wedding while I was in 1909. This book was originally inspired by my grandmothers and great-aunts who travelled independently in Europe in the first half of the twentieth century.