by Rebecca Wait
For huge generosity in giving up their time to deal with my legal queries, I’d like to thank Carolina Bracken, and also Jae Carwardine of Russell-Cooke Solicitors. My plot veered wildly as I wrote the book, and so, therefore, did my questions – they showed saint-like patience. Any inconsistencies or liberties taken are, of course, my own. Thank you, as well, to staff of the British Geological Survey: an amazing resource.
Several friends have helped with this novel in diverse ways. Helen Wyatt shared my brush with recruitment when we were teenagers (‘Jesus is coming on a white horse, and he is NOT HAPPY!’), and was an enthusiastic reader of early drafts. Suzie Chamberlain provided detailed information on supermarkets, which I will carry to my grave. When it comes to cults, Katie Nairne has the gleam of the fanatic in her eye, and has been on hand throughout for in-depth discussion. Clare Garbett went out of her way to get answers to some of my stranger questions and Archie Davies provided characteristically incisive comments on the manuscript. Issy Sudbury, Briony Newman, Helen Wyatt and Katie Nairne gave me the beautiful writing desk at which I wrote most of the novel. It kept me going on hard days. Thanks, all of you.
Finally, thank you to the long-suffering triumvirate: Dave Young, a bastion of sanity in a mad world; my mum, who is always at the end of the phone, and has never given up on her dream of ensuring I don’t go out without a cardigan; and my dad, who made me a table, and came round to the idea of reading.
Also by Rebecca Wait
The View on the Way Down
First published 2015 by Picador
This electronic edition published 2015 by Picador
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-4472-2476-1
Copyright © Rebecca Wait 2015
Jacket images © Kohei Hara / Getty Images
Author photograph © Alexander James
The right of Rebecca Wait to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Extract from Murder in the Cathedral taken from The Complete Poems and Plays by T. S. Eliot © Estate of T. S. Eliot and reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber Ltd.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, organizations and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, places, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Macmillan does not have any control over, or any responsibility for, any author or third party websites referred to in or on this book.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Visit www.picador.com to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that you’re always first to hear about our new releases.
