The Chosen Ones

by Scarlett Thomas

  I am very lucky to have a number of wonderful young first-readers. Thank you in particular to Molly Harman, Al Preston, Ray Preston, Leah Motton, Maddie Richardson, Isaac Richardson, Teuila Smith-Anderson and Matt McInally for your enthusiastic reading, and your insightful and encouraging comments on my writing.

  I am also extremely grateful to all the lovely people I get to work with on these books. Thanks so much to everyone at Canongate, particularly Jenny Fry, Jamie Byng, Anna Frame, Alice Shortland, Neal Price, Megan Reid, Andrea Joyce, Jessica Neale, Caroline Clarke, Allegra Le Fanu, Becca Nice, Lorraine McCann, Alan Trotter and Sylvie the dog. Big thanks also to Debs Warner for doing a great job with the copy-edit.

  My work has been very enthusiastically supported by so many wonderful booksellers, librarians and teachers. Thank you to all of them, and in particular to Simon Key at the Big Green Bookshop and Gudrun Bowers at the Steyning Bookshop.

  Thank you to my brilliant agent, Georgia Garrett, for all her good advice. And lastly, a massive thank you to Dan Mumford for the amazing artwork for these books. My world is richer because of it.