Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

I may be on my eighth book but the terror of forgetting someone here never goes away. If I’ve left you out, it’s not deliberate. (Apart from Mark Casarotto: I omitted you on purpose so no one knows you’re the real life person who’s allergic to lettuce.)

So – much gratitude to my editorial team at HarperCollins, my editor Martha Ashby, and assistant editor Lucy Stewart, for all their dedicated hard work, and to Lynne Drew for her kind encouragement. And thanks to Keshini Naidoo for a hoot of a copyedit. Well, I was hooting, anyway. Hoot like nobody’s listening.

And big shout to my lovely agent Doug Kean, a more patient man you couldn’t find.

Thank you to my first draft readers on this outing, who cheer me on to the finish line – Kristy, Tara, my sister Laura, Katie and Sean. I really couldn’t be without you.

Thanks to female friends, both online and off, who talk to me about life, love and entertaining catastrophes, and generously reply ‘of course’ when I say: I may have to use this in a book, please. This story is about female solidarity and I couldn’t write it if I didn’t know it.

Praise be to Rebecca Lucy Taylor, aka Self Esteem, for the quote and the masterpiece of an album that soundtracked my edits and the mood so perfectly. Cheers also to Bruce Springsteen, ‘Dancing in the Dark’ and a line so apposite it’s Harriet Hatley’s mission statement.

Thank you to the brilliantly witty writer Justin Myers for letting me borrow his peerless description of an Aperol Spritz, and to Dominic Grace for allowing his nickname for next door’s cat to be repurposed for a demonic chihuahua.

My research squad: huge thanks to the ridiculously talented wedding photographer of Cheshire and Manchester, James Tracey, who talked me through the practicalities of the job, and told me some brilliant anecdotes – please accept my apologies if there are any errors to a professional eye in here!

And thank you to Chris King and also Elaine Campbell for taking the time to explain various Leeds venues to me – much appreciated, and any errors of description are definitely mine.

Thank you to Alex, who knows the writing process ain’t always pretty, and took me for the Fancy Vimto cocktails at The Midland which proved vital to unlocking this plot.

And thank you, once again, to everyone who reads my books, I’m so sincerely amazed and grateful to have your time, and try my hardest not to waste it.