To the River
Page 23
PERSONAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My thanks go first to Robert Macfarlane and Robert McCrum, both of whom have been instrumental in making this project possible and who have been unstintingly kind.
One of the great pleasures of writing this book has been conversing and corresponding with people far more knowledgeable than me. I should like to thank the following: Caroline Archer for putting me up at Navigation Cottage. Julian Barker for discussions on botany and greensand. John Bleach at the Sussex Archaeological Society for patiently explaining the topography of the Battle of Lewes, as well as drawing my attention to the bodies buried beneath the railway embankments. Ian Dunford at East Sussex Archaeology and Museums Partnership for answering endless archaeological queries. Anna Fewster for her brilliant take on Woolf’s books. Alison Light, for directing me to two quotations I would not otherwise have found. Helen Macdonald for her beautiful map, as well as last-minute bird aid. The staff of the Berg Collection at New York Public Library, Brighton Library, East Sussex County Records Office, Lewes Library, and the University of Sussex Library Special Collections, where, fortunately for me, much of the Woolf archive resides. Sarah Pearson, curator at the Hunterian Collection, for revealing the real fate of Gideon Mantell’s spine. Will Pilfold and Margaret Pilkington at the River Ouse Project for answering my queries about washlands. Sam St Pierre at the Sussex Ouse Conservation Society. Liz Williams at the Railway Lands for helping with bird identification. Nathan Williams for his trove of folk songs and indigenous ballads.
I’ve been very lucky with my publishers, and owe a great debt of gratitude in particular to Nick Davies, my editor, whose enthusiasm, sensitivity and insight I’ve deeply appreciated. In addition, I’d like to thank all at Canongate, especially the wonderful Norah Perkins, and Annie Lee. I’m also very grateful to my agent Jessica Woollard and the staff at the Marsh Agency.
I’ve been blessed with an exceptional group of early readers, among them Robert Dickinson, Denise Laing, Euan Ferguson, Peter Laing, Elizabeth Day, Helen Macdonald and William Skidelsky: thank you all. A special mention must go to Jean Hannah Edelstein, publishing guide par excellence, who went beyond the call of duty in almost every respect. I’d also like to thank Stuart Croll, Clare Davies, Tom de Grunwald, Grace Dunford, Maud Freemantle, Tony Gammidge, Barbara Howden Richards, Kitty Laing, Robin McKie, Lili Stevens, and Carole and Charles Villiers for their interest and support, as well as Mat Ash, who first took me to the river.
Sins of error and omission are of course my own.
PERMISSIONS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author and the publisher would like to thank The Society of Authors as the Literary Representative of the Estate of Virginia Woolf, and The University of Sussex and The Society of Authors as the Literary Representative of the Estate of Leonard Woolf.
Extracts from Moments of Being, The Diaries of Virginia Woolf and The Letters of Virginia Woolf (edited by Nigel Nicolson and Joanne Trautmann), published by Hogarth Press, are reprinted by permission of Random House.
‘The Diviner’ by Seamus Heaney is reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber.
‘In Praise of Limestone’ by W.H. Auden, copyright © 1978, is reprinted by permission of The Estate of W. H. Auden.
‘Ithaca’ by C. P. Cavafy translated by E. Sachperoglou in Cavafy: Collected Poems, is reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Olivia Laing lives in Brighton. Between 2007 and 2009, she was the Observer’s Deputy Books Editor. She writes and reviews widely, for the Observer, the New Statesman, the TLS and the Guardian among other publications. She has a first class BSc (Hons) in herbal medicine, and practised as a medical herbalist for several years before becoming a journalist, specialising in the treatment of anxiety and depression. Olivia Laing has been awarded a MacDowell Fellowship and grants from the Arts Council and Author’s Foundation to work on her second book, The Trip to Echo Spring, which will be published by Canongate in 2013.