Spares

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to Steve Jones, for whom I wrote the story which contained the seed of what follows; to the Chiselers and Chiselettes, for valued misery and chiseling; to arch-Miserablists Kim “Crispy” Newman and Paul “The Duck” McAuley for good advice (which I’m going to start taking); to Rob and Steve for helping me not to finish too early; to Clive Barker for kind words, and to Neil Caiman for helping me to not get sued; to Kingsley Amis and Tori Amos for very different inspirations; to Rachel Baker, Dick Jude, Chris Smith, Paul Landymore, and others for putting their weight behind the first one, and to the reps of HarperCollins for being a bunch of absolute stars; to Howard and Adam and Jenny and Les and Val and Mandy and Jo and Richard and Suzanne and Zaz for damaging my health; to Jane Johnson for putting up with me, and to Jim Rickards for being a hard bastard; to Ralph Vicinanza, Lisa Eveleigh, Linda Shaughnessy, Nick Marston and Bob Bookman; to Margaret and David and Tracey and Spangle and Lintilla for being who they are; and finally to Nana Harrup (Get through that defense) and Grandma Smith (oh, bother it) for being who they were.