The Lazarus Vault

NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Chrétien de Troyes is arguably the perfect artist: unknowable, except through his work. All that survives of him are the five Arthurian poems he wrote in the second half of the twelfth century, which laid the foundation for the entire genre of Arthurian romance. Without Chrétien’s imagination there would be no Camelot, no Lancelot and his illicit love for Queen Guinevere — and no Holy Grail.

It’s almost impossible, now, to imagine a world where the Holy Grail didn’t exist. Such was the power and mystery of Chrétien’s elusive vision that within a generation his readers had begun a process of expanding, adapting and confusing it that continues to this day. Looking backwards, scholars have expended huge energy and ingenuity in trying to trace the Grail’s mythic antecedents. For all their efforts, it’s clear that while the life-giving vessel is a recurring archetype in human mythology, the specific instance of the Holy Grail belongs to Chrétien alone.

All the businesses featured in this novel are entirely fictitious and any similarities to actual companies or their employees are either wholly coincidental, or the result of a far deeper conspiracy than I can fathom.

Like Chrétien, I’ve drawn together my story from a mass of pre-existing material. I’m very grateful to everyone who gave me insights into the workings of the City of London, especially Mark Kleinman, Sophie and Marcus Green, Nick, Edward Sawyer, Don Simon Wapping and Mark Hallam. I’ve also benefited hugely from resources in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the British Library, the York Minster Library and the University of York library. The Tristan und Isolde described in chapter fifteen is based on an actual production at the Royal Opera directed by Christof Loy and designed by Johannes Leiacker.

At Random House, I’d like to thank the three editors who worked on this book — Oliver Johnson, who commissioned it; and Kate Elton and Georgina Hawtrey-Woore, who saw it through — as well as all the people who’ve helped design, produce and promote the book. In changing times one of the constants has been my agent, Jane Conway-Gordon, who continued her indomitable tradition of good cake and good advice.

Like my fictional Chrétien, I began writing to impress the woman I was in love with. My stories might not measure up to his, but my romance has been happier: my wife Emma is still the cornerstone of everything I do. Our son Owen accompanied me on a long, tiring research trip with astonishing good humour, and only the occasional croissant and moules frites by way of compensation.