Secret of the Sands

by Sara Sheridan

  Gratitude is due to the team at Creative Scotland and, in particular, Aly Barr, for providing much-needed financial support (historical novels take time) and accommodating my poor arithmetical skills.

  Then there are those wonderful mainstays – Jenny Brown, my agent (a round of applause, please!), Maxine Hitchcock, the editor who commissioned the book, Kate Bradley who saw it through and the whizzy team at HarperCollins (Caroline, Charlotte, Claire, Kesh and Sammia– alphabetical order, girls!). For these a standing ovation! It is so lovely, in the solitary business of writing, to feel there is a team behind me and, in particular, one that can put up with me being exacting, ambitious and full of ideas that cause work for other people. Thanks for the chats, the reassurance, the swanky party and all the hard work.

  To the Greatest Geek, a veritable computer whisperer, who helped me put together www.sarasheridan.com and made that process fun – thanks in English and HTML.

  Tx also to all the kind people I have met on Twitter (which I did not expect to enjoy but has been a delight). Such generosity is met rarely in the world.

  And, oh, my friends and family last but not least. You deserve the biggest thanks of all for writers are a pain in the arse. They are. They sleep in late, forget to wash their hair, clothes and children, disappear for weeks on end, don’t make dinner and, worse, are often more interested in what happened in August 1833 than what is going on at the moment. Much is due to those who supported me in so many ways during the nutjobbery of my crazy, book-writing process. Thank you for taking pride and having faith in what I was doing – the wonderful Sarah Joseph, the Goodwins, the Faulkners, Stephen MacGregor, Gemma Tipton, Lorne Blyth, Frank Hoskins, Lucy Gordon, Liberty McKenzie, Maisie Hennessey, Morag Cormack, Sarah Hughes, Jan Ambrose, Katie Emslie, Annette Matzner and Lee Randall. And then, of course, there is my daughter, Molly (I am so proud!) and my wonderful boyfriend, Alan Ferrier (the most patient man in history – I’ve researched it).

  Author’s note about language

  I do not speak Arabic and in any case spelling Arabic words with English letters spawns a wide variety of possible combin ations that were not standardised until well after Wellsted’s day. I copied Arabic words from contemporary manuscripts and hope that the resulting spelling does not prove too confusing for those whose knowledge of the language is greater than mine.

  About the Author

  Sara Sheridan was born in Edinburgh and studied English Literature at Trinity College, Dublin. Fascinated by different media, she has written a wide range of stories including contemporary novels, short films, teen and children’s books as well as historical fiction. In 2000 her first novel, Truth or Dare, won a place in the 100 Best Scottish Books as part of the Scottish Library Award. She was also included in Company magazine’s Top Ten Young Writers Under Thirty and has been shortlisted for a Saltire Award. Sara has one daughter and lives in Edinburgh.

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  By the Same author

  The Secret Mandarin

  Copyright

  Copyright © Sara Sheridan 2010

  Sara Sheridan asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  ISBN-13: 978-1-84756-199-2

  EPub Edition © 2010 ISBN: 9780007352524

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

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