It is unusual for a book of letters to be published during the lifetime of its authors and this one has greatly benefited from their contribution. My first thanks, therefore, are to Debo and Paddy for being unfailingly generous with their time and memories.
I owe a huge debt to Helen Marchant who typed all the letters, not only at record speed but with preternatural skill when it came to de -ciphering Paddy’s handwriting.
I am particularly grateful to Artemis Cooper, who is preparing a biography of Paddy, and to Olivia Stewart for her help with the photographs.
I would also like to thank the following: Ginnie Airlie, Stuart Band, Anne Pauline de Castries, Caroline Cranbrook, Derry Moore, Katie Edwards, Anne Egerton, Ian Else, Magouche Fielding, the Clerk to the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers, Bridget Flemming, Nicholas Henderson, Hussein Hinnawi, Kate Kee, Jeremy Lewis, Jean-Noël Liaut, Elizabeth Longman, Mary S. Lovell, Michael Mallon, Sophie Caroline de Margerie, Peter Miller, Diane Naylor, Charles Noble, Henri and Sybil d’Origny, Jane Ormsby Gore, Andrew Parker Bowles, Andrew Peppitt, Christine Robinson, Serena Rothschild, Penelope Skarsouli, Mary Soames, Archie Stirling, Mario Testino and Teresa Wells.