The Secret History of the World

Acknowledgements

I thank Sarmaurin, Kszil and Aaron. I have been helped in the thinking and writing by Hannah Black, Jane Bradish Ellames, Jamie Buxton, Kevin Jackson, Kate Parkin and Paul Sidey. I am blessed to have such kindred spirits. I have the best agent and the best publisher. Jonny Geller is all deft action like a Zen archer and Anthony Cheetham is a unique combination of intellectual clout and commercial nous. As soon as I saw he was setting up a new publishing company, I knew I wanted to be published by it. I wish to thank Sue Freestone, my editor and Publisher of Quercus, and also the exceptionally able Charlotte Clerk. Thanks, too, to Patrick Carpenter, Nicolas Cheetham, Caroline Proud, Lucy Ramsey, Emma Ward, Andrew Sydenham, Doug Kean, Paul Abel and also to Elaine Willis for researching some really obscure pictures. Thank you, Betsy Robbins and Emma Parry for wonderful foreign rights sales, and I’m really glad to have the legendary Peter Mayer as my publisher in the States. Fred Gettings and Lorna Byrne Fitzgerald have, I know, been looking after me from afar. My mother, Cynthia, and Terry provided a peaceful haven when it was needed. My family have had to put up with a lot in the past eighteen months. My daughter Tabitha has also helped by drawing some brilliant illustrations in cases where permissions have been beyond reach, and my son Barnaby is always ready to lighten the mood with his subversive jokes. I thank my wife, Fiona, for all the love and dedication she has shown throughout the writing of this book — and this I now wish to repay.