Queenie(105)

Lettice Franklin, I could fill hundreds of pages thanking you for too many things, for being my personal problem solver, for keeping so many of my secrets, and for never judging me. Tom Killingbeck, you are still the only person to make me laugh so much that I’ve fallen on the floor, you are also still the only person to have unironically sung “Cool” by Gwen Stefani at me when I was going through a breakup. You are 10/10.

To my first readers with whom I would trust my life: Hayley Camis, Lettice Franklin (obviously), Sharmaine Lovegrove, Harriet Poland, Susannah Otter, and Jessie Burton; you saw Queenie when she was in bits and pieces (in all senses), and you gave me important, funny, loving, and critical feedback. I am very lucky to have had your eyes.

To Alison Callahan, thank you for understanding Queenie’s recklessness so uniquely, and for instinctively knowing how to make her story its best self. Your editorial brain is so brilliant. Thank you also to Brita Lundberg for being such a joy and for answering any and all of my mad questions. Special thanks to copy editor Joal Hetherington for really taking me to task. Thank you also to Meagan, Jen, Abby, Diana, Mackenzie, and Anabel of Scout Press for all of the comms.

Deborah Schneider, your excitement and love of Queenie has ensured that her story reached America and that in itself is gigantic and completely beyond me. Thank you so much.

To my personal corgis: Morwenna Finn, Cicely Hadman, Lydia Samuels, Hayley Camis (so good you’re acknowledged twice), Daniellé Scott-Haughton (wife), Anya Courtman and family, Patrick “it will happen” Hargadon, Selcan Tesgel, Selina Thompson, Afua Hirsch, Ella Cheney, Hazel Metcalfe, Hannah Howard, Hattie Collins, Keso Kendall, Nikesh Shukla, Julian Obubo, Indira Birnie, Will Smith, Will White; your love and your phone calls and texts and voice notes and songs and inspirational playlists have sustained me. Special shout-out to Lydia for forgiving me after I crashed her car.

Michael Cragg. Babes. The only person I could ever wish to be stuck in an office in Dalston with whilst a riot rages outside. Thank you for lots of things, but most notably for the ￡200 you lent me. And thank you for lending it to me when I needed it again after I paid it back. And then again. I’m not sure where we are with it now; please let me know.

Thank you to Kid Fury and Crissle of The Read podcast; your voices kept me company, and kept me laughing, when I was sat in front of a laptop in the dead of night and everyone else was asleep.

And finally, thank you to Jojo Moyes and Charles Arthur. No matter how much you protest, this book probably wouldn’t have been started if it weren’t for your kindness.

#BlackLivesMatter