Angel with Two Faces

Acknowledgements

I owe a great debt to my Cornish friends – to Victor and Monica Strike for their generosity in sharing stories of their family trades in matters of life and death, which have shaped the book more than they can know; Oliver Allen for bringing 1930s Porthleven to life with his own family history; George Snell for his legendary tales and for memories of Loe Bar and Gunwalloe; Brian Stephens for the loan of his library, and for keeping an eye on us whenever we’re there; Motley Penrose (or Lynford) for making Helston Lodge more glorious than it is already; Lynda Green for happy times at the Galley and at Motley & Co.; Sheila Toy, Michael Crowle, John Strike and all the Motley regulars; Lesley Wearne from Charlotte’s Tea House for lending her name; and Sandy and Russell at the An Mordros Hotel for their constant support and encouragement, and most of all for their friendship – without which, there would be no Cornish novel.

I’m forever grateful to the Rogers family for allowing people to enjoy the beauty of the Loe Pool and Penrose Estate, and to the staff and touring companies at the Minack Theatre who continue to keep the spirit of Rowena Cade very much alive with magical performances each summer. My apologies go to the artist Hilda Quick, who actually designed the costumes for the Minack’s 1935 production of The Jackdaw of Rheims; to my knowledge, the performances went off without a hitch.

Part of the research for this book was funded by Arts Council England, and I would like to thank everyone at Arts Council England, East for their continued support of the series; my agent, Karolina Sutton, my editor, Walter Donohue, and everyone at Faber and Faber for making the books a reality and a joy; Dr Peter Fordyce for devoting so much of his precious time to advising on nastiness, and for his love and knowledge of horses; Alastair Cameron from the National Trust for providing information about the history of the Penrose Estate; Margaret Westwood, Dr Helen Grime and Anne Fraser of The Highland Council for continuing to unravel the past; Professor Harriet Jump for the gracious loan of her mother and aunt; Carol Carman for all the inside information from the Yard; and Cambridge University Library for holding the answers to so many questions – I don’t know how anyone writes a book without it. Special thanks go, once again, to Irene for her magic and blessings, and to St Anthony of Holland Park for so much more than finding the title.

Love and thanks – as always – to my family, in particular to my father for his love of the woods and a good game of cricket, and to my mother for her passion for a good story and her eagle eyes during the early stages of this one.

And to Mandy, who drove 380 miles in the snow to start our Cornish adventure in Morveth Wearne’s cottage – this book is precious to us for lots of different reasons, but none more so than the fact that we’ve done it together.