Two for Sorrow

Acknowledgements

It would take a lifetime to do justice to the creative contribution which Mandy Morton makes to this series: her ideas, research and suggestions along the way have made each book—and the joy of writing it—far richer than it would otherwise have been. And a lifetime’s fine.

Many people have been generous with their time and knowledge, and I owe particular thanks to: Jenny Elliott from the Royal College of Nursing for helping to recreate the Cowdray Club as it would have been in 1935, and Susan McGann, Archives Manager, Royal College of Nursing, and staff at the London Metropolitan Archives for further information; Birmingham Archives & Heritage Service, and all who have given information on Anstey Physical Training College; staff at Cambridge University Library for tracking down so many accounts of the Sach and Walters case; Peter Cox for taking us in off the street in Finchley and helping with the history of Hertford Road and the Sach family; Fiona and Catherine Cameron, Pat Wythe, Julia Reisz, Richard Stirling and Sally Morgan for supplying details of Inverness, pre-war Walberswick and other locations in the book; and to Sir John Gielgud, who was kind enough to talk to me at length about Josephine Tey and, in so doing, created one of the mysteries on which this book is based.

The history of crime and execution in the first half of the twentieth century is widely documented, but nowhere more vividly than in Albert Pierrepoint’s Diary of an Executioner, and I’m especially grateful to Stewart P. Evans for his extensive work on the subject. Books by Judith Knelman, Jerry White, Cicely McCall, Lilian Wyles, Sheridan Morley, Michael Mullin, Harriet Devine and Virginia Nicholson have all provided invaluable research for various aspects of the novel and, once again, I’m indebted to help and advice from Dr Peter Fordyce, Margaret Westwood, Dr Helen Grime, the staff at The Highland Council, and to John Stachiewicz and The National Trust for continued permission to quote from Elizabeth Mackintosh’s work and correspondence.

Love and thanks to everyone who continues to care so much about these books: Walter Donohue and everyone at Faber; PD James; and, of course, my family, whose support and encouragement now is as important as it has always been.

And to Gordon Daviot and Marda Vanne, whose correspondence and friendship are at the heart of Two for Sorrow, and who continue to inspire the series; some of the author’s proceeds from this series will go to the Daviot Fund to support the work of The National Trust in England.