The Night Watch

by Sarah Waters

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thanks to Lennie Goodings and staff at Time Warner Books UK, to Julie Grau and staff at Riverhead Books, to Judith Murray and everyone at Greene & Heaton Ltd; and to the inestimable Sally O-J.

  Thanks to Hirāni Himona, Sarah Plescia, Alison Oram, Liz Woodcraft, Amy Rubin, Fidelis Morgan, Val Bond, Betty Saunders, Robyn Vinten, Bridget Ibbs, Ron Waters, Mary Waters, Caroline Halliday, Mary Garner, Trudie Sacker, Vicky Wharton, Betty Vaughan, Jennifer Vaughan, Pamela Pearce, Roger Haworth, and Lesley Hall; to Terry Spurr at the London Ambulance Service Museum, Christine Goode and Chani Jones at Price’s Candles Ltd, Jan Pimblett and staff at the London Metropolitan Archives, staff at the Imperial War Museum Archive, staff at the City of Westminster Archives Centre, staff at Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre; and to the various people with whom, over the past four years, I’ve had conversations about the 1940s—especially those who’ve given me advice and ideas on ladies’ underwear, electric light fittings, and silk pyjamas.

  Thanks to Martina Cole for generously bidding to have her name appear in this novel at an Immortality Auction on behalf of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture; and for kindly giving me permission to use her name in abbreviated form.

  I drew ideas and inspiration for The Night Watch from many sources, including novels and films of the 1940s, photographs, maps, diaries, letters, and modern accounts of life during and after the Second World War. The nonfiction I found most useful includes the following:

  Anderson, Verily. Spam Tomorrow. London: Hart and Davis, 1956.

  Baker, Peter. Time Out of Life. London: Heinemann, 1961.

  Beardmore, George. Civilians at War: Journals 1938–1946. London: John Murray, 1984.

  Bell, Barbara. Just Take Your Frock Off: A Lesbian Life. Brighton: Ourstory Books, 1999.

  Butler, A.S.G. Recording Ruin. London: Constable & Co., 1942.

  Clayton, Gerald Fancourt. The Wall Is Strong: The Life of a Prison Governor. London: John Lang, 1958.

  Cooke, Rupert Croft. The Verdict of You All. London: Secker & Warburg, 1955.

  Cooper, Diana. Trumpets from the Steep. London: Hart and Davis, 1960.

  De-la-Noy, Michael. Denton Welch: The Making of a Writer. Harmondsworth: Viking, 1984.

  Eddy, Mary Baker. Science and Health: With Key to the Scriptures. Boston: Trustees Under the Will of Mary Baker G. Eddy, 1906.

  Gardiner, Jill. From the Closet to the Screen: Women at the Gateways Club, 1945–85. London: Pandora Press, 2003.

  Grafton, Pete. You, You & You! The People Out of Step with World War II. London: Pluto, 1981.

  Hartley, Jenny, ed. Hearts Undefeated: Women’s Writing of the Second World War. London: Virago, 1994.

  ———. Millions Like Us: British Women’s Fiction of the Second World War. London: Virago, 1997.

  Hodgson, Vere. Few Eggs and No Oranges: A Diary Showing How Unimportant People in London and Birmingham Lived Throughout the War Years 1940–1945. London: Persephone, 1999.

  Howard, Elizabeth Jane. Slipstream: A Memoir. London: Macmillan, 2002.

  Johnson, Audrey. Do March in Step Girls: A Wren’s Story. Sand-ford, North Somerset: Audrey Morley, 1997.

  Kimball, Edward Ancel. Lectures and Articles on Christian Science. Chesterton, Indiana: Edna Kimball Wait, 1921.

  Lord, Henrietta Frances. Christian Science Healing. London: G. Redway, 1888.

  Minns, Raynes. Bombers and Mash: The Domestic Front 1939–45. London: Virago, 1980.

  Nixon, Barbara. Raiders Overhead. London: Lindsay Drummond, 1943.

  Norman, Frank. Bang to Rights: An Account of Prison Life. London: Secker & Warburg, 1958.

  O’Hara, Patrick. I Got No Brother. London: Neville Spearman, 1967.

  Partridge, Frances. A Pacifist’s War. London: Hogarth Press, 1978.

  Pearsall, Phyllis. Women at War. Aldershot: Scolar, 1990.

  Perry, Colin. Boy in the Blitz. London: Leo Cooper, 1972.

  Priestley, Philip, ed. Jail Journeys: The English Prison Experience Since 1918. London: Routledge, 1989.

  Pym, Barbara. A Very Private Eye: The Diaries, Letters and Notebooks of Barbara Pym, ed. Hazel Holt and Hilary Pym. London: Macmillan, 1984.

  Raby, Angela. The Forgotten Service: Auxiliary Ambulance Station 39, Weymouth Mews. London: Battle of Britain International, 1999.

  Ross, Julian Maclaren. Memoirs of the Forties. London: Alan Ross, 1965.

  Sheridan, Dorothy, ed. Wartime Women: A Mass-Observation Anthology 1937–45. London: Phoenix, 2000.

  Shute, Nerina. We Mixed Our Drinks: The Story of a Generation. London: Jarrolds, 1945.

  Simmons, Clifford, ed. The Objectors. London: Times Press, 1965.

  Smith, Anthony Heckstall. Eighteen Months. London: Allan Wingate, 1954.

  Waller, Maureen. London 1945: Life in the Debris of War. London: John Murray, 2004.

  Welch, Denton. The Journals of Denton Welch, ed. Michael De-la-Noy London: Allison & Busby, 1984.

  Wildeblood, Peter. Against the Law. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1955.

  Wyndham, Joan. Love Lessons: A Wartime Diary. London: Heinemann, 1985.

  ———. Love Is Blue: A Wartime Diary. London: Heinemann, 1986.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Sarah Waters is the author of Tipping the Velvet, a New York Times Notable Book, Affinity, winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, and Fingersmith, which was shortlisted for both the Orange Prize and the 2002 Man Booker Prize. In 2003 she was named one of Granta’s best British writers under forty. She lives in London.