by Rosie Blake
I have plenty of people to thank but there is always someone I forget. Apologies if that person is you. I did have twins, like a year ago, so let’s blame that.
To the team at Sphere/Little, Brown, thank you for publishing another of my books. To my editor Maddie West for wanting to work with me again and for loving Teddy and Lottie’s story more than I could have imagined. Your enthusiasm for my writing is such a boost and I can’t wait to hear more from you from the world of academia. To Lucy Malagoni for being on it after inheriting me. I shall throw in a juicy crime or two in the next one. To Hannah Wood for producing such a wonderful cover and discovering the gorgeous illustrations by Anna Woodbine. It was such a joy to see the way in which you collaborated to come up with something really fresh and thoughtful. To Thalia Proctor for keeping a handle on the many edits and for being so pleasant to deal with. To my publicist Francesca Banks and Gemma Shelley my marketeer. I’m hoping there is some serious gin in our promotional plan. To Andy Hine for saying lovely things about my writing and working hard to boost me abroad!
To my excessively hard-working agent Clare Wallace. We’ve been so busy this year we have barely had time for one of our sixteen-hour catch-up sessions. Let’s change that in 2020. To her wonderful maternity-cover agent Tanera Simons, who has such an exciting career ahead of her. Darley Anderson is a fantastic agency and I definitely need to acknowledge the tireless behind-the-scenes efforts of the rights team, led by the delightful Mary Darby. Thank you Emma Winter, departed to pastures new, to Kristina Egan and Georgia Fuller. To Sheila David for trying to turn these books into films. This is the one! I know it! To Rosanna Bellingham for sending me the best emails.
Over the course of this novel I reached out to numerous friends for inspiration. Special thanks must go to the JCBC for their help in coming up with love quotes and excellent, and varied, ways to hex people. To Sara Benwell for stealing her lilo story. To Kat Brown for coming up with the ideal venue to fall out with your best friend (John Lewis!) To Jo Ouest for putting me in touch with her fabulous, and fascinating, grandmother Jill Bayly. To my barrister friends for their advice: Richard Campbell, Roxie Cooper and Lynsey Burns. To Aunt Elisabeth and my late Uncle Julian for stealing the anecdote about the list of jobs. To Isabelle Broom for something I didn’t note at the time. To Kirsty Greenwood for always being on the end of a WhatsApp. For my Book Camp crew – a brilliant bunch of writers – for making me laugh and saying nice things about my writing.
Thank you so much to the reviewers and bloggers who spend their precious time reading and reviewing books for needy authors like myself. It never fails to blow me away how dedicated you all are to spreading word of a book you love. So many of you promoted my last book, The Hygge Holiday, and I am sure it helped make it such a success. Thank you so much. It is often your messages, retweets and lovely reviews that pep me up when I am writing the next one. And to the plentiful readers who take time out of their day to get on Amazon and Goodreads and share their thoughts. You all help people to discover my books and I am so grateful.
To my parents for their encouragement and excitement for everything I do. Dave for the barrister advice and Basia for being a stone-cold legend. You are both the best.
To my husband Ben. I know it isn’t always easy being married to a distracted writer; the endless deadlines and the scattered approach to our domestic life would have sent a lesser man over the edge. You bear it amazingly well and I hope I can learn a little from Lottie and maybe spend at least part of 2020 giving you some attention. To Barnaby, Lexi and Ness – I love you guys so much. I removed loads of the swear words in the proofread.