Her Fearful Symmetry

Acknowledgements

I COULD NOT have written Her Fearful Symmetry without the extraordinary generosity of Jean Pateman, Chairman of the Friends of Highgate Cemetery. In addition to teaching me about the Cemetery and allowing me to become a guide there, she has been a great friend and an inspiration.

I am very grateful to the staff of Highgate Cemetery: Hilary Deeble-Rogers, Richard Quirk, Simon Moore-Martin, Pawel Ksyta, Aneta Gomulnicka, Victor Herman and Neil Luxton, for help with funeral customs and practices and for answering my many questions with great humour and patience.

I am especially indebted to Dr. Tony Jelliffe and to John Pateman, whose research and scholarship have been particularly relevant to this project.

Many thanks to Christina Nolan, Susan Norton, Alan Peters, Eddie Daley, Tracy Chevalier, Stuart Thorburn, Ian Kelly, Mary Openshaw, Justin Bickersteth, Greg and Becky Howard, Jean Ettinger, Judy Roberts, Rowan Davies, Ken Carter, Bob Trimmer, Christian Gilson, Steve Hanafin, Matthew Pridham, Samantha Perrin, Alex Mahler, Judith Yuille and all the Guides and Friends of Highgate Cemetery, past and present, who kindly let me tag along on their tours and badger them while they did the accounts. It has been a privilege to work with them.

Love and thanks to Joseph Regal, for his derring-do, fortitude and unconventional thinking, as well as his immensely helpful editing. Thanks to Lauren Schott Pearson, Markus Hoffmann and Howard Sanders for their excellent advice and guidance in literature and life. Thank you to Barbara Marshall and Michael Strong. And thanks, Caspian Dennis of Abner Stein, for friendship and excellent agenting.

Thank you to Dan Franklin for wise editing and sideways thinking, and for correcting my Americanisms (French windows; who knew?). Love and thanks to Rachel Cugnoni, Suzanne Dean, Chloë Johnson-Hill, Alex Bowler, Liz Foley, Roger Bratchell and Jason Arthur of Random House UK; thank you to Marion Garner and Louise Dennys of Random House Canada. And Dank und Liebe to Hans Jürgen Balmes, Isabel Kupski and Brigitte Jakobeit of S. Fischer Verlag.

Thank you to Nan Graham, for her incisive editing and lightness of touch; I look forward with pleasure to our future collaborations. Thank you, Susan Moldow, Paul Whitlatch, Rex Bonomelli and Katie Monaghan of Scribner.

I am grateful to the Ragdale Foundation and the Corporation of Yaddo for residencies that gave me time and space to work, and to the British Library for research assistance. Thanks also to the High-gate Scientific and Literary Institution for a productive afternoon in their library.

Thanks and love to Lisa Ann Gurr, Ethan Lavan, and the little Gurr Lavans Jonathan and Natalia for their delightful hospitality. Special thanks to Lisa Ann Gurr for permission to use her story of the ghosts of the trees, and also for letting me borrow the Little Kitten of Death. (Sorry I had to kill her.)

Much love and thanks to Hayley Campbell, Neil Gaiman, Antonia Rose Logue, and to David Drew for all the wonderful afternoons at the ballet.

Many thanks to Noah D. Frederick for his Latin translation and his help in translation-related matters. Thanks also to Ana Rita Pires for her Portuguese translation of Martin and Marijke’s fantasy taxi ride. Thank you to Daniel Mellis for his help in arranging that.

Love and special thanks to Bert Menco for his help with the Dutch language and all things Nederlandish.

Thanks to John Padour for his indispensable drawing of the layout of the flats in my imaginary Vautravers, which saved me from many gaffes. Thanks to Janet Lefley for the long days of writing and chatting at Kopi’s; thanks to Jesse Thomas, Mary Drabik, Catalina Simon, Jesus Mendes and Jesus Reyes for all that Russian tea and sympathy.

Thank you for inspiration, advice, research assistance and/or reading the manuscript: Lyn Rosen, William Frederick, Jonelle Niffenegger, Riva Lehrer, Bert Menco, Danea Rush, Benjamin Chandler, Robert Vladova and Christopher Schneberger. Thanks to Patricia Niffenegger for help with sewing enquiries, and to Beth Niffenegger and Lawrence Niffenegger for their support.

Thank you to Sharon Britten-Dittmer for her friendship and for keeping chaos at bay.

And thank you to April Sheridan for her quiet strength and good sense, for her astonishing writing and art, and for helping me to make my art.