I am very grateful to have the support and guidance of two stellar agents. Thank you to Alice Lutyens at Curtis Brown for reading my words, for getting Gigi, for understanding me and for taking a chance on us both. Thank you for your vision, your belief and your tenacity. I am so lucky to have you in my corner. My thanks also to Zoe Sandler at ICM Partners. Thank you for believing in this book before you even met me, for knowing exactly what to do with it and for always being the reassuring voice of reason on the other end of the phone.
My gratitude to Tom Bromley, my tutor at Faber Academy, for your encouragement, expertise and insights when this book was in its infancy. Thank you also to the lovely group of writers whom I met on Faber’s Work in Progress course where this book was born. Without your honest critiques, Gigi would not be the woman she is in these pages. Special thanks to Su Lynch for your advice early on.
Thanks and love to Elaine Davenport for reading my manuscript multiple times, for your feedback and for allowing me to borrow from our shared memory of 9/11. My loving gratitude to Lesley Bourns for your insights, advice and calm reassurance at many stages of this process. Huge thanks and love to Lesha Merley Hill, for your thoughtfulness, honesty, perspective and for sharing all your knowledge about books.
Thank you, Addie Haler Burke, for your time in answering my questions and helping me with my research into the technical aspects of adoption in New York State.
Thank you, Barry O’Leary, for fact-checking the legal and immigration aspects of this story and for your encouragement.
Many thanks to those who gave me their valuable time to answer questions and provide critiques, feedback, notes and suggestions at various stages of writing: Jessica Alexander, Diana Baxter, Deborah Bial, Nicolle Brooks, Carlos Carela, Amy Denton-Clark, Sarah Rose Gregory, Jessica Jones, Maleeha Kirmani, Julian Lewyckyj, Tia O’Flaherty, Mariah Pizzano, Jen Rachman, Alexandra Rella, Justine Schettino, Nicola Waskett Bannister and Emily Williams.
Thank you to the casts of Real Housewives of New Jersey, New York City, Atlanta, and Beverly Hills as well as to the cast of Mob Wives. I have never met any of you but I, like millions of other women, feel as if I know you. You have been a light during some of my darkest times.
Much of this book was inspired by my observations and experiences during the births of my sons in London and the many women and mothers I crossed paths with during my early years of motherhood. Thank you to them. Some are my friends to this day. Some are women I may have met only in passing, but with whom I shared a glance of mutual understanding. Some had a courage I have never seen, before or since, and their strength and their mothering in times of adversity is something I will never forget. Some were strangers, encountered in supermarkets and playgrounds, who showed me and my children great kindness, and sometimes, great disapproval. All are woven into my memory. All have stayed in my heart.
To my little boys, Leo and Rex, thank you for giving me so much material to work with. I hope one day you read this book and feel in its pages that you are the heartbeat of my life and that you always have been; that there are no words I could ever write to explain my love for you or for my gratitude that I am your mother.
Finally, to my husband, Tim, my partner in all things. Thank you for your love; for making me laugh every day; for leaving your shoes by the door where they are right at this moment as I write this; for believing that I could write a book and making sure that I did. This book, our life—they are possible because of you.
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ilona Bannister grew up on Staten Island and lived in New York City until she married a Brit and moved to London. Bannister, a dual-qualified U.S. attorney and U.K. solicitor, practiced immigration law in the U.K. before taking a career break to raise her two young sons and unexpectedly found herself writing fiction. When I Ran Away is Bannister’s first novel.
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When I Ran Away Page 28