The Inverted World

AUTHOR’S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The notion that provides the basis of this novel first came to me in 1965. For eight years I wrestled with it, and in so doing talked out the idea to many of my friends. To them I at last offer my thanks for listening, and the hope that the book is worth their while. Such was the extent of my boorishness that there are too many people to list individually, but I owe especial thanks to the following friends:

Graham Charnock, who suggested the guilds.

Christine Priest, who persuaded a computer to draw me a hyperboloid planet.

Fried. Krupp GmbH, of Essen, who unknowingly provided the computer.

Kenneth Bulmer, who listened longer and more patiently than most, and who gave me positive encouragement to write first the story and then the book.

Brian Aldiss, who wanted the city to go the other way.

Virginia Kidd, who finally convinced me I might be on to something when she told me the physics had a hole so large a city could be driven through.