by Laline Paull
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book was written with the support of a great many people. It is now my pleasure to thank: At 4th Estate Books, David Roth-Ey and Helen Garnons-Williams; Michelle Kane, Matt Clacher and Paul Erdpresser; Lottie Fyfe, Anne O’Brien and Tom Killingbeck; Jo Walker for the beautiful cover, and Chris Wormell for the woodcuts inside.
Thank you to my agents Simon Trewin and Dorian Karchmar, and to the Royal Society of Literature for the Brookleaze Grant, which I used towards research travel to Svalbard. When I got there Frigg and Frank Jorgensen showed me generous hospitality, gave me connections and rifle training; Arild Lyssand gave me invaluable research information throughout my process; my warmest thanks to all of them. Thanks in Svalbard also to Jason Roberts, Tom Foreman and Mark Sabbatini for Arctic guidance in many forms, and to Captain Daniel Rizzotti, Mikael Arman, Dima Litvinov and Arne Sorensen for hospitality aboard the Greenpeace ship Esperanza.
This book has benefited from the collected wisdom of the following authorities in their fields, and all errors and omissions in the text are mine alone. It is my pleasure to thank: Dr Peter Wadhams and the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge; Rear Admiral John Kingwell and Mrs Alison Kingwell; Mr Michael Kingston, insurance representative at the International Maritime Organisation on the finalisation of the Polar Code; Mr Alan Kessel, Canadian Deputy High Commissioner in London; Mr Charles Emmerson, Senior Research Fellow, Chatham House; Professor Klaus Dodds, Professor of Geopolitics at Royal Holloway College, University of London; Judge Rüdiger Wolfrum, member of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea; Mr Robin Hepburn; Mr Rod Downie of the World Wildlife Fund and Mr Geoff York of Polar Bears International; and my thanks again to polar scientists Dr Tom Smith, Dr Jon Aars, Dr Lily Peacock, Dr Christian Sonne and Dr Kristin Lairdre. I must also thank those individuals who, on condition of anonymity, confirmed the plausibility of one story element; also that truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
For permission to use her real performance as a cameo in this novel, I thank Polaris and Mercury prize-winner Tanya Tagaq, and for further insight into Inuit culture of Nunavut, I thank Mataalii Okalik. I also thank Peter Freuchen’s grandson Peter Ittinuar, and his great-grand-daughter, Natalie Ittinuar, for their support.
Though he will not now read this book as he hoped, I owe thanks to Peter Cawson, one of the unsung heroes of the Polarati. In return for tea and fruitcake on Thursday afternoons in his funny little shop in St Leonards-on-Sea, he dug out rare old Arctic books and told me stories. Thank you to Beannie Nicholson for baking the best, and thank you too, Natascha Lampert, and Nick Foulkes.
For inspiration and support, I thank Clare Reihill, Jay Griffiths, Cal Moriarty, Clare Carlin, Anna Orenstein, Paul Dornan, Isabelle Grey, Liz Jensen, Ruth Gravelle, Natasha Bishopp, Maggie Doherty, Tessa Boase and Hattie Ellis. For patience and love during the writing process I thank all my family but particularly my mother and my daughter India Rose.
Lastly, I thank my husband Adrian Peacock, who ran base-camp and dangerous rescue missions like a true hero.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Laline Paull was born in London of Indian parents. She studied English at Oxford, screenwriting in LA and theatre in London. She is married with children.
ALSO BY LALINE PAULL
The Bees
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