This Body of Death

Acknowledgments

The New Forest itself served as enormous inspiration for this novel, but inspiration is nothing without details. So I’m grateful to people both in Hampshire and in London who assisted me with various aspects of the book. First among them must be Simon Winchester, master thatcher, who allowed me to observe him at work in Furzey Gardens and who explained the myriad techniques and tools of his craft. Additionally, Mike Lovell met with me in Lyndhurst and explained his work as one of the New Forest’s five agisters, while the Honourable Ralph Montagu and Graham Wilson added a great deal of information both on the history of the New Forest and on the purpose and employment of verderers and keepers, respectively. Alan Smith of Hampshire Constabularly supplied me with all of the policing details, and in London, Terence Pepper and Catherine Bromley of the National Portrait Gallery gave me the necessary information that allowed me to create my version of the competition for the Cadbury Photographic Portrait of the Year. Jason Hain kindly allowed me access to the Segar and Snuff Parlour in Covent Garden, and a lovely Peruvian mask maker in Jubilee Hall nearly convinced me to have my likeness rendered in plaster, thereby inspiring me to create my own mask maker in this novel. The always resourceful Swati Gamble sorted out the answers to countless questions I threw at her regarding everything from the Home Office to the location of educational institutions. Finally, the New Forest Museum was a treasure trove of information in Lyndhurst, as was the British Museum in London.

In the United States, Dr. Tom Ruben once again fielded medical questions, for which I thank him, my assistant Leslie Kelly did mountains of research for me on dozens of topics, and both my longtime reader Susan Berner and my new reader Debbie Cavanaugh gave me extremely valuable feedback on the penultimate draft of this novel.

I am always supported in my work by my husband, Tom McCabe; by my literary agent, Robert Gottlieb; by my U.S. and UK editors, Carolyn Marino and Sue Fletcher; and by my U.S. and UK publicists, Heather Drucker and Karen Geary.

Elizabeth George

WHIDBEY ISLAND, WASHINGTON