My thanks go once again to the gifted Emma Beswetherick, without whom this book could not have been written. My huge thanks also to Joanne Dickinson for her conviction, enthusiasm and commitment. I’d also like to thank Ursula Mackenzie, David Shelley, Paola Ehrlich, Lucy Icke, Sara Talbot, Darren Turpin and the rest of the team at Piatkus and Little, Brown.
I want to thank Felicity Blunt at Curtis Brown for being the best agent a writer could have. My thanks also to Kate Cooper and Tally Garner, also at Curtis Brown.
Thank you Anne Calabresi who told me that her parents were the roof which had sheltered her, which I used in this story.
My friends and family made writing this book possible. So thank you again to my parents for their continuing support and to my sister Tora Orde-Powlett who is always my first and best reader. I also want to thank Sandra Leonard who read the ending before I’d written the beginning and encouraged me to carry on; to Michele Matthews for her generosity of time; to Trixie Rawlinson, Kelly Martin, Livia Firth and Lynne Gagliano who saw me often while my head was buried in the story and were so practically supportive. And to my old friends whose emails kept me going – Anne-Marie Casey, Nina Calabresi, Katy Gardner, Katie London, Anna Joynt, Alison Clements and Amanda Jobbins.
I’d like to thank Richard Betts, and all the teachers like him, whose classrooms are safe, happy and inspiring and where children can fly.
Last, but most of all, to my husband Martin, who says he doesn’t need thanking.