A Suspicion of Silver
Page 32
Joachim and Poppy replace two of Radagunda Hochstetter’s children who died in childhood and I have, of course, used my authorial licence pretty freely throughout the book. I think it’s possible, though, that something similar to my account was going on in Keswick in the later years, especially as the Graham headman, Ritchie Graham of Brackenhill, did in fact have a thriving counterfeiting business in his pele tower at Brackenhill. By the way, Brackenhill tower has been rebuilt and is apparently available for rent.
I have to confess to having invented the various superstitions around the smith and his smithy, unless I simply read about them a long time ago somewhere obscure and forgot, as I did with the incident I stole from C S Forrester—Karen L Black, you got me bang to rights!
And if I was running the charming and helpful Keswick Museum, I would have a whole standing exhibition devoted to the forgotten history of the German miners in Keswick in the sixteenth century. I’m sure it would fascinate modern Germans. It certainly fascinated me!
Acknowledgments
As always I owe enormous gratitude to all the people who have helped me with my book. If I’ve forgotten anybody, I hope you’ll forgive me.
Ian Blakemore of Rosley Books actually got me a little tour of Vicar’s Island itself, and showed me round Keswick.
Andrew Gordon very generously allowed me to borrow his house while he was on holiday, so I could career around the Lake District and Carlisle, and among other treats, took me to Whitehaven to look at the place (before I realised Workington was the right port).
Keswick Museum and Threlkeld Quarry Museum were generous with their help.
Markus Baur has been my alpha reader who supplied correct German formal address and some snippets of German, as well as advice on German customs, proof-reading and excellent suggestions.
Stephen Michael Stirling has read an early draft and given his usual valuable and measured advice.
My beta readers are heroes. It’s not easy to read a rough early draft of a book and give your thoughts within two weeks.
Here they are, in no particular order: Lynn McMillan, Lorna Toolis, Michael Skeet, Fiona Middlemist, Lori Walker; Kier Salmon, Chris Luke, Frank Luxem, Lorraine Neill, Sallie Blumenauer, Hadas Kozlowsky, Gereg Jones Muller, Diana Britt, Hilarie Berzins, Robin Mclennan, Clay Foard, Karen L Black, Kendall Britt.
Thanks are also due to Sophie Robinson at Head of Zeus (my UK publishers), and Barbara Peters at Poisoned Pen Press (US publishers). Nowadays it’s rare for publishers to take as much care over editing as they do.
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