The Modern Library

Acknowledgements

COLM TÓIBÍN

Aidan Dunne; Anne Enright; Mary Mount; Andrew O’Hagan; Jon Riley; The London Library; The Library of Trinity College, Dublin.

CARMEN CALLIL

All my friends helped me with this book, and I am grateful to them for their suggestions, advice, conversations and for listening to me. Special thanks to:

Tariq Ali; Hanan Al Shaykh; Christine Bell; Liz Calder; Lorraine Callil; Susannah Clapp; Frances Coady; John Cox; David Davidar, Penguin Books, India; Polly Devlin; Peter Eyre; Bob Gottlieb; Sandy Grant; Kate Griffin; Clare Harman; Philippa Harrison; John Hayes; Michael Healy, The Cornstalk Bookshop, Sydney, Australia; Michael Herr; Michael Holroyd; Helena Ivins; Pat Kavanagh; Helena Kennedy; Hermione Lee; Suzanne Lowry; Roger Mackell, Gleebooks, Sydney, Australia; Mary Mackintosh and all at the Elgin Bookshop, London W11; Anthony McConnell; Hilary McPhee; David Matthews; Sonny Mehta; Di Melly; Tom Melly; Caroline Michel; Ivan Nabokov; The North Kensington Library, London W11; Craig Raine; Gail Rebuck; Jon Riley; Ann Victoria Roberts; Deborah Rogers; John Ryle; Alison Samuel; Harriet Spicer; Jenny Uglow; Caroline Upcher; Marina Warner; Joshua White; Kitty Wishart, University Bookshop, Auckland, New Zealand; to my agent Gill Coleridge and Ursula Doyle of Picador; and in particular to Max Lowry, aged eighteen when I started this book, whose relish for rock music and bad videos prompted me to provide him and his generation with this pointer, to one of the oldest and best entertainments of all.