A very special thank you to my watchmaker, poet and songwriter friend, Geoff Allnutt, for making that 150-mile round trip to answer all my questions about valuable timepieces.
An equally special thank you to Chris Bonnello, novelist, special needs teacher, creative writing tutor and autistic advocate, for creating the Underdogs series; and for your regular, encouraging emails whilst I was writing The Time-Thief. You’re my role model for a four-book cycle!
A huge thank you to the following friends, creatives, academics and fellow writers for their support, encouragement and solidarity: Bernardine Evaristo, Philip Pullman, Benjamin Zephaniah, Kim Zarins, Steve Tasane, Carolyne Larrington, Julia Forster, Katherine Rundell, Fleur Hitchcock, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Michael Morpurgo, Faridah Abike-Iyimide, Ben Miller, Elle McNicoll, Sophie Anderson, Libby Scott, Christopher Edge, Anna James, Candy Gourlay, Leone Ross, Ros Barber, Sasha Dugdale, Stephanie Scott, Rosemary Harris, Emma Foulds, Rebecca Mandisodza, Catherine Jones, Stephen Goodridge and Sue Jones.
A heartfelt thank you to all teachers, librarians, booksellers, bloggers, parents and promoters on and offline who have continuously and passionately championed the Leap Cycle from the word go: especially Scott Evans, the Reader Teacher; Indigo Williams at BookTrust; Mathew Tobin at Oxford Brookes; Anne Boyere of the SCBWI; Ashley Booth; Aidan Severs; and many many others too numerous to mention but you know who you are, wonderful people.
A special thank you to Oliver Foulds for reading early drafts and every single published version of The Leap Cycle and giving me fantastic feedback. You’re a star!
Most of all, I thank readers, especially young readers, for your questions and quotes, letters and tweets, illustrations and imaginations. You’re the writers of the future!
Patience Agbabi was born in London in 1965 to Nigerian parents, spent her teenage years living in North Wales and now lives in Kent with her husband and children. She has been writing poetry for over thirty years. Her first novel, The Infinite, Book 1 in The Leap Cycle series, was published in 2020. Like Elle, she loves sprinting, numbers and pepper soup, but, disappointingly, her leaping is less spectacular.
The Circle Breakers, Book 3 in The Leap Cycle series, is coming in 2022!
FIND OUT WHERE THE STORY BEGAN . . .
‘It has a magic all of its own’
BERNARDINE EVARISTO
The Time-Thief Page 17
