ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to all the people who had to put up with me while writing this book. My family, who now understand the art of writing: do nothing until the last minute and then type frantically, screaming and begging for the world to end the day before the delivery date. Albert and Nick at BBC Books for keeping a roof over our heads during this process by sending cheques. Steve Tribe not only for giving me the gig in the first place but also for having a name so macho that one cannot help but feel reassured... I picture him as a literary Doug McClure beating primeval creatures to death while correcting my grammar. I hope I never meet him... it's so disheartening to have one's dreams shattered. And, of course, Morris and Pinborough; who'd have thought it, eh?

The rest of you? You're in the book, what more do you want?