The Lamplighters

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I owe a debt of gratitude and admiration to the book Lighthouse by oral historian Tony Parker, whose interviews with lighthouse keepers and their families illuminated the way I wished to set about this novel and the telling of this tale. Parker’s portrayal of a vanished way of life makes understood not just the occupation of lighthouse-keeping but also the wisdom and humanity of those who dedicated their lives to the service.

Some of the anecdotes and experiences of life on a sea tower are based on recollections belonging to real keepers. For this insight into the hearts and minds of that community, I have the following memoirs and anthologies to credit: Ceaseless Vigil by William John Lewis, It Was Fun While It Lasted by A. J. Lane, Stargazing by Peter Hill, and the keepers’ voices in The Lighthouses of Trinity House by Richard Woodman and Jane Wilson. I drew further inspiration from The Lighthouse Stevensons by Bella Bathurst, Lighthouse Construction and Illumination by Thomas Stevenson, Henry Winstanley and the Eddystone Lighthouse by Adam Hart-Davis, Eddystone: The Finger of Light by Mike Palmer, the Lore podcast episode ‘Rope and Railing’ by Aaron Mahnke, and the poem ‘Flannan Isle’ by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson.

Thanks to my brilliant editors Francesca Main, Andrea Schulz and Iris Tupholme for their insight, intuition and improvements to the manuscript; and to Sophie Jonathan for steering it so ably, and with such cleverness and kindness, out to sea. To the teams at Picador in the UK, Viking in the US and HarperCollins in Canada for their enthusiasm and expertise, in particular Jeremy Trevathan, Camilla Elworthy, Katie Bowden, Katie Tooke, Laura Carr, Roshani Moorjani, Claire Gatzen, Nicholas Blake, Lindsay Nash, Carolyn Coleburn, Molly Fessendon, Lindsay Prevette, Kate Stark, Nidhi Pugalia, Sona Vogel, Bel Banta, Amanda Inman, Meighan Cavanaugh, Claire Vacarro, Tricia Conley, Sharon Gonzalez, Nayon Cho, Jason Ramirez and Julia McDowell.

To my agent Madeleine Milburn and all at MMLA, especially Anna Hogarty, Liane-Louise Smith, Georgina Simmonds and Giles Milburn. Maddy, you’ve known this story for as long as we’ve known each other. Much like the lighthouses when they were a glimmer in a Stevenson’s eye, many drafts were built and fell, but we got our lantern shining in the end.

Mimi Etherington, Rosie Walsh and Kate Reardon, thank you: I hope you know what for. I’m grateful to Kate Wilde, Vanessa Neuling, Caroline Hogg, Chloe Setter, Melissa Lesage, Jennifer Hayes, Joanna Croot, Emily Plosker, Sam Jenkins, Chioma Okereke, Laura Balfour, Sarah Thomas, Jo Robaczynski and Lucy Clarke for their friendship and support. Love to my sister Victoria, my nephew Jack, and my parents, Ian and Katharine, to whom this book is dedicated.

Thank you, Mark, for encouraging me towards my beloved lighthouse, in life and imagination. But most of all, to Charlotte and Eleanor, who are forever my brightest lights.