The Mad Monk of Gidleigh

Acknowledgements

There are too many people to whom I am indebted for me to mention them all, but I am especially grateful to Mike, a great countryman and local historian in his own right, for introducing me to his friend, the late Dickie Narracott, last hereditary Warden of the Bradford Leat. From them came the plot, and I am hugely grateful.

There is another person who must be thanked. In the week that my copy-editor asked where we could find a vocabulary of medieval curses and insults, along came an email with thirty-odd. Max, thanks!

Finally I have to thank those who have helped, advised, guided and slapped me down occasionally: first my wife Jane, then my agent Jane; Marion, Andi and Shona, the world’s three best commissioning editors (I would say that, wouldn’t I), and Joan Deitch, for copy editing with courage, conviction and courtesy.

Having said all that, of course, I have to point out that all errors are their fault and not mine.