Early Riser

Acknowledgements

My thanks firstly to you, dear sweet reader, for sticking with me during what I now call my creative hiatus of 2014–2016. That you are still here now (and have presumably finished the book if you are reading this) is testament to your loyalty, for which I am immensely grateful. I can only apologise profusely that it happened (I’m still trying to figure out why) and hope to return to the year-on-year books that I managed to do in the past.

Thanks also go to the estimable Carolyn Mays at Hodder, who never lost faith in my ability to one day deliver another book, and was a pillar of strength throughout. Similar thanks also to Andrea Schulz and Allison Lorentzen at Penguin, and special gratitude indeed belongs to the ever-supportive Will Francis, ably assisted by the team at Janklow & Nesbit.

John Wooten once again agreed to my: ‘yes, Jasper, it’s vaguely plausible’ fact-checking regime and offered vital help and assistance with the theoretical functioning of the HotPots and Vortex Cannon.

Josh Landy in the book is actually a real person, and a jolly splendid one too. The part of ‘Josh’ was auctioned off in the book to support our local school and the Hay and Talgarth Refugees group, of which many thanks for his generosity. I wanted Josh to be recognisable as such rather than simply ‘Your Name Here’ and he entered into the spirit of the exercise with all due gusto, and much of the dialogue and descriptive prose attached to Josh’s character is his – my thanks for making it all so easy.

The frontispiece was done by Bill Mudron and Dylan Meconis, and a jolly fine job was done, as usual, and at lightning speed – they can be contacted at www.billmudron.com and www.dylanmeconis.com and are open for commissions. My thanks also to Catherine Affleck for undertaking the infinitely subtle job of designing logos for HiberTech and the Consul service. More of her work and contact details can be found at www.catherineruthdesign.com.

It only remains for me to thank Simon for our Thursday lunches, all my children for the never ending joy they continue to bring me, and Ozzy, whose sharply focused and never-ending enthusiasm for stick fetching has been a source of huge inspiration.