The Scotland of The Children of Castle Rock is a Scotland of my imagination, a blend of the many places I have visited and loved there. To this end, I have changed all the place names, though if you know the area at all you may be able to guess their origin …
Thank you to my dear friend, Janey McAllester, for lending me her beautiful home on Ardnamurchan, and for her patience answering my wild texts about local flora and meteorology. To my parents, for trusting their two little girls to the care of a stream. To my husband and daughters, as ever, for their support. To my agent, Catherine Clarke, for always being right. And to Alice Swan, editor extraordinaire, specialist of ‘it’s good … but I know you can do better’, who pushes me on to do things I never imagined I could. Being edited by her is an adventure in itself.