My editors, Suzanne Baboneau at Simon & Schuster UK and Mitch Hoffman at Grand Central Publishing, are quite simply the best editors any writer could wish for. I feel exceptionally lucky. And I am hugely grateful to them.
Particular thanks go to Eva-Marie Hippel at Dumont, a good friend with a meticulous eye for detail. Also thanks to Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown and Robert Bookman at CAA for all their support. Robert Bookman has an amazing gift for connecting people, and he put me in touch with Michael Korda, whose wonderful book Journey to a Revolution: A Personal Memoir and History of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (HarperCollins, 2006) was extremely useful research. I appreciate Michael taking the time to answer my questions.
I can’t remember which writer spoke about the need to have trusted readers — perhaps every writer has spoken about it. I have two, Ben Stephenson and Alex Arlango: My love and thanks to both.