ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I’ve long been fascinated by Madagascar, for its unique evolutionary history, its extraordinary geology, its beauty and its remoteness, so it seemed the ideal setting for this story about shipwrecks and maritime exploration. The island lies directly between the Cape of Good Hope and India, after all, so its reefs have long presented a lethal threat to shipping—as evidenced by the wreck-site of the Winterton, featured in this book.

All the characters in this book are of course fictional, as is the Eden Reserve itself (to accommodate which, I’ve had to extend the coastline a little between Salary and Bedakoy). It is, however, very loosely based on a number of wildlife and marine projects I visited in Madagascar. In particular, I’d like to thank Al Harris and everyone else I met at Blue Ventures for their help. They do terrific work at Andavadoaka, and it’s a wonderful place to visit. I’m also grateful to Francesco in Salary both for his hospitality and for sailing me out to the site of the Winterton.

My heartfelt thanks, as ever, to my agent Luigi Bonomi and my editor Julia Wisdom, whose encouragement and unfailingly wise advice is immensely appreciated. I’d also like to thank Anne O’Brien for checking the manuscript so diligently and thus saving me from the embarrassment of my own mistakes. Any that remain are, of course, mine and mine alone.