by David Nobbs
Acknowledgements
I must thank my agents Jonathan and Ann Clowes, Nemonie Craven Roderick and Olivia Guest for their ever helpful suggestions, Lynne Drew, Victoria Hughes-Williams, Liz Dawson and Elinor Fewster for all their support since I joined the Harper list, and my wife Susan for her unfailing help, patience and support.
Thanks also to the composer Matthew Taylor for his guidance with the pieces that Charles plays on the piano in the last two chapters.
But my greatest thanks must go to my editor, Mary Chamberlain. Her suggestions were extremely detailed, sometimes quite harsh, but almost always utterly right. I owe her a great debt of gratitude for whatever quality the book has.
About the Author
David Nobbs was born in Orpington and educated at Marlborough, Cambridge and the Royal Corps of Signals, where he reached the lofty rank of Signalman. His first job was as a reporter on the Sheffield Star, and his first break as a comedy writer came on the iconic satire show That Was The Week, That Was, hosted by David Frost. Later he wrote for The Frost Report, The Two Ronnies and many top comedians. It Had To Be You is his eighteenth novel, no less than six of which he has adapted for TV, including his two hit series A Bit Of A Do and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. His first three novels, The Itinerant Lodger, Ostrich Country and A Piece Of The Sky Is Missing, are now available through Print On Demand. David lives in North Yorkshire with his second wife, Susan.
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Other Books by David Nobbs:
Novels
Obstacles to Young Love
Cupid’s Dart
Sex and Other Changes
Going Gently
Fair Do’s
A Bit Of A Do
A Piece Of The Sky Is Missing
Ostrich Country
The Itinerant Lodger
Reginald Perrin Series
The Legacy of Reginald Perrin
The Better World of Reginald Perrin
The Return of Reginald Perrin
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
The Death of Reginald Perrin: a novel
Pratt
Pratt à Manger
The Cucumber Man
Pratt of the Argus
Second from Last in the Sack Race
Non Fiction
I Didn’t Get Where I am Today
Copyright
This novel is entirely a work of fiction.
The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Harper
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Hammersmith, London W6 8JB
www.harpercollins.co.uk
IT HAD TO BE YOU. Copyright © David Nobbs 2011. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
David Nobbs asserts the moral right to
be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978 0 00 728629 4
EPub Edition © MAY 2011 ISBN: 978-0-00-742366-8
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