Emerald Decision

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to express my thanks to my father, Bryn Thomas, a former minesweeping officer, for his invaluable assistance during the writing of this book. It was his wartime recollections that prompted the story of the novel, and his expertise that contributed in no small measure to the descriptions of naval activity. Also, my gratitude to Wilfrid and Ada White, my wife's parents, for their memories of the Blitz in London.

Of the numerous texts consulted during the period of research for the book, I would like to mention in particular Roskill's The War at Sea, vol. 1 (HMSO) and Beesly's Very Special Intelligence (Hamish Hamilton).

My thanks, and affection, to Simon King for his enthusiasm for the project.