Hellfire

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I owe a great debt of gratitude to Captain Paul Mason, Army Air Corps, the Apache guru who (as he constantly reminds me) taught me all I knew. You were an inspiration to me Paul.

My sincere thanks to the Attack Helicopter Force Commander, Lieutenant Colonel David Turner AAC, and the Director of Army Aviation, Brigadier David Short CBE ADC, for their support throughout, and for letting me tell it the way it was.

A special thank you to Paula Edwards at the MoD for her habitually elegant tightrope act.

The dedication, time, enthusiasm and friendship of the HarperCollins team has been nothing short of monumental. John Bond and Arabella Pike, thank you for believing in me.

I couldn’t have written this book without the guidance of Nick Cook and Martyn Forrester. You have helped nurture and shape my narrative in a way that I could never have achieved on my own. Thank you both so much.

Thanks to all my army buddies, friends and family for your continued support.

I owe my sanity to TFM’s Gary Philipson for letting me in the Zoo at night to talk to the Love Slug!

I’d always assumed an agent was someone who took money off you for licking the odd stamp when he could find the time. I now realise it doesn’t stop there. I can’t thank Mark Lucas enough – for your tireless promotion, advice and, above all, priceless edits. You’re my agent, literary scholar, adviser and above all friend.

Emily, you are my foundation. You support everything that I dream of and you always hold firm when times are rough. Without you I could never even begin to chase my dreams.

To my children, my little AAC: you are my world.