ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many people gave assistance to me during the writing of this book, but it is to Miss Carolyn Blakemore, senior editor of Doubleday & Company, New York, that I am most deeply indebted and whom I must thank first. For three years she gave unstintingly of her valuable advice and time, and her encouragement and belief sustained me at all times. But apart from her moral support, I am grateful to her for her technical skills as an editor, her good taste and sense of style.

I would also like gratefully to acknowledge invaluable help from the staff of the Reading Room of the British Museum, as well as the staffs of the following: Leeds Public Library; Bradford Public Library; Armley Public Library; the Newspaper Microfilm Division of Leeds Public Library; Bankfield Museum, Halifax; Kirkstall Abbey House Museum, Leeds; Fountains Hall, Studley Royal, Yorkshire; Temple Newsam House, Leeds; the Imperial War Museum, London; the New York Public Library. In particular I must thank Mr Ernest Hall of Leigh Mills, Stanningley Bottom, Leeds, for devoting hours to showing me around old portions of the mills and supplying pertinent information regarding conditions in the Yorkshire woollen mills at the turn of the century; my thanks also to Mr Ronald Jacobson, Export Liaison Manager of Marks and Spencer, Ltd, London, for providing old photographs of the original Marks and Spencer’s Penny Bazaars in Leeds, and for information regarding the founding and development of that company.

I owe special thanks to Mrs Susan Watt, formerly London editor of Doubleday & Company, whose research was always meticulous and efficiently and promptly supplied, often on very short notice. I would also like to thank all of those friends who helped in a variety of ways: Mr Ronald M. Sumrie, chairman of Sumrie Clothes of Leeds, for introductions to woollen mills in Yorkshire; Mrs Frances Lyons Barish of New York, for giving me access to her father’s World War I diaries, for generously typing and duplicating relevant parts; Miss Pauline V. Delli Carpini of New York, for general assistance with the preparation of the final manuscript which saved me untold hours; Mr Eugene H. Winick of Ernst, Cane, Berner & Gitlin, New York, for legal advice regarding wills, trusts, and estates; Mr Morton J. Mitosky of New York, for advice about the same; Mr and Mrs Eric Clarke of Ripon, who drove me across Yorkshire on numerous occasions and reacquainted me with old childhood haunts; Mr and Mrs Eric Fielding, my gracious hosts on my various research trips to London; Mr Peter W. McGill, chairman of AP Publishing, Sydney, who supplied me with detailed maps and vital research material about Australia; Mrs Joan Feeley of New York, for typing a long manuscript most meticulously; Mrs Charlotte Wendel, who helped to keep me physically fit; Mrs Janet Schiff of Chicago, who diligently proofread major portions of the finished manuscript. I would like to express my gratitude to Mrs Joy Klein of New York, not only for her friendship but also for her extraordinary understanding of my obsession with this book, which was expressed in countless ways. Also, my most sincere thanks to Mr Paul Gitlin of Ernst, Cane, Berner & Gitlin, New York, and to Mr George Greenfield of John Farquharson Ltd, London, my literary representatives for many years and both dear friends whose confidence and support I deeply appreciate.

Finally, I owe a special debt to my parents, Mr and Mrs Winston Taylor of Leeds, for their encouragement and dedication to my project. They also spent many months seeking out old books and newspapers, and their vivid recollections of Yorkshire in the early 1900s provide much of the background for this novel. And my gratitude to my husband for his understanding and belief.

New York, 1979

Quotation from ‘The Poems of Yurii Zhivago’, Hamlet, from Doctor Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak, translated by Max Haywood and Manya Harari. Copyright © 1958. Reprinted by permission of William Collins Sons and Company Limited.