Bad Actors (Slough House, #8)(105)

credits


Those of a mischievous mindset might seek to associate this book’s title with the current Apple TV+ series of Slow Horses, but my regular, sober-minded readers will recognise that the phrase has been bubbling away for a while, and was always intended to take its place on a cover. As for the actual actors involved, I couldn’t be more thrilled with the cast that’s been assembled, more delighted with the work they’re doing, or happier with the welcome Jo and I have always received on set. My thanks to all involved—cast, crew, production staff, drivers and fellow hangers-on—and especially to the writing team, whose company has long been a source of laughter and inspiration. If I named you all, these credits would roll and roll.

My thanks, too, to all at John Murray Press—and its brand new Baskerville imprint—who do so much to keep the show on the road, and all at Soho Press who got it up and running in the first place. And love and thanks, as ever, to Juliet and Micheline for all they do; to Jo, for everything she does; and to Tommy and Scout, for whatever they’re up to at the moment.

A reader recently emailed to inform me that a line I’d used in Slough House (“Home was where, when you went there, they had to let you in”) was more or less from a Robert Frost poem. “Anyone who has read Frost,” he solemnly assured me, “will pick this up right away.” Damn it . . . Caught red-handed. Before sentence is passed, I’d like many dozens of similar offences to be taken into consideration. I won’t list them all, but the line on page 128 that Lech Wicinski remembers his father quoting—that “everyone is more or less of Polish origin”—is from Iris Murdoch’s Nuns and Soldiers.

This book is dedicated to my dear brother Paul, to his wife Emily, and to his children, Thomas and Matthew. But it’s also for the rest of our family, with love, always. The time we spend together has never been more precious.





MH


Oxford

November 2021