by Sophie Ward
Thomas Nagel Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012)
John von Neumann Theory of Games and Economic Behavior with Oskar Morgenstern (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004)
Roy Sorensen Thought Experiments (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992)
Scarlett Thomas The End of Mr. Y (London: Canongate, 2008)
Peggy Tittle What If … (New Jersey: Pearson Longman, 2005)
Osman Türkay, Symphonies for the World (London: A. N. Graphics, 1989)
Voltaire, ‘Micromegás and Other Short Fictions’, tr. Theo Cuffe (London: Penguin, 2002)
Acknowledgements
This book was born from a love of the philosophers and poets, the storytellers and novelists, who have delved into the depths of human consciousness and surfaced with fragments of our kelpie soul.
Thank you to the ECL department at Goldsmiths for your support and advice, in particular to my supervisors Blake Morrison and Michael Simpson, to Josh Cohen and Maura Dooley, and to Maria Macdonald for your patience.
In Laura Macdougall I was lucky to find a collaborator and a friend. Thanks to United Agents. Especial thanks to the acute sensibilities of Sarah Castleton, to Olivia Hutchings for handholding through proofs, to the meticulous Caroline Knight, Zoe Hood for ant music, to Matthew Burne for the cover design and all at Corsair.
Thanks to Simon Oldfield who awarded the original short story 'Sunbed' with the RA and Pin Drop Short Story Award 2018. That story forms part of Chapter 3 of this novel and will appear in the paperback edition of A Short Affair. Thanks also to Elizabeth Day. And thanks to Richard Skinner of Vanguard.
Thank you to the English teacher who believed, Mrs Wright née Clay, and thank you to Nicola Monaghan and Richard Beard for excellent instruction. Thanks to my early readers, especially the fine writer Jane Harris, and good friends Cathryn Wright and Abi Shapiro. Thank you to my sisters, Claudia and Kitty, and my mother, Alex, for bearing with me.
Thank you to Rena, who has loved me and the ant in my eye.
And most of all thank you to our sons, Nat and Josh, who save the world every day.