Meet Me in the In-Between
Page 25
The Mantle and Grove teams: Josie Humber, Camilla Elworthy, Katie Raissian, Sal Destro and Gretchen Mergenthaler, Deb Seager and Justina Batchelor. For elevating patience and professionalism to an art form.
To Morgan Entrekin: You are the Zeus of publishers.
Ami Smithson: For your beautiful cover design which I love, love.
My wise London agent: Sarah Lutyens, whose uncanny resemblance to wise spectral agent, Sarah in the book is purely coincidental. Sarah, just so you know – you are almost always quietly right about everything.
My fearless US agents: Kim Witherspoon and Sylvie Rabineau, whose uncanny resemblance to fearless US agents in the book is unsurprising given it is a memoir. Thank you for not minding how babyish I am.
My friend of friends, John Sutcliffe: For our adventures. Wherever you’re going, can I always come too?
To friends Colleen Woodcock, Stacey Workman, HC, KI, LW, and others whose names I’ve changed or in some cases omitted. You are all part of this story.
The Virginia Centre for the Creative Arts residency programme where this book was both conceived and completed.
My VCCA residency family: Thank you Bea Booker, Sheila Pleasants, Sarah Sargent, Carol O’Brien, Dana Jones, and Kimberley Stiffler – for feeding and watering me over the years. VCCA could not mean more to me in terms of support and inspiration.
My fellow residency fellows: A. K. Benninhofen, Julie Bloemeke, Tim Denevi, Paul Skenazy, Sandell Morse, Howie Axelrod, Frank Day, Agu, Alberto and oh so many others. For your thoughtful reads, friendship and superior skills at mixing cocktails.
Special thanks to Kristen Cosby: For helping me whip these stories into some kind of shape. You are an incredibly smart, generous and intuitive reader whose ruthless pen sharpened every line it touched.
Thank you too, to VCCA France, Moulin à Nef in Auvillar and the wonderful Tyrone Guthrie residency in Ireland.
To my Pollen family: Stellar sibs, Susie and Marcus #superglue. And also my beloved half-sibs, Josh and Lally. Thank God we’re all in this together.
My heroic father. My mother became suddenly ill and died while I was on deadline for MMITIB. Thank you, Pops, for bullying me into picking up the manuscript and for keeping me at it all those days and nights in hospital when it was the last thing on earth I wanted to be doing.
And lastly to Mum . . . For teaching me about the things that really matter. For always giving me courage when I had none left. You were the invisible force behind these stories but now I see you on every page. You were, are, and will forever be, the most spectacular of mothers.
Bella Pollen is a writer and journalist who has contributed to a wide variety of publications, including the Sunday Telegraph, American Vogue and the Observer. She is the author of five novels, All About Men, Daydream Girl, Hunting Unicorns, Midnight Cactus and The Summer of the Bear. She lives in Ladbroke Grove, London.
ALSO BY BELLA POLLEN
All About Men
Daydream Girl
Hunting Unicorns
Midnight Cactus
The Summer of the Bear
Illustrations
KATE BOXER is a British artist and printmaker whose unique and idiosyncratic body of work defies categorization. Her most recent show, ‘I Won’t Eat You’, was held in 2016 at Cricket Fine Art, London. info@cricketfineart.co.uk
More of her work can be seen at
www.kateboxer.co.uk
Calligraphy
AMY GADNEY is a multimedia artist and writer. Winner of the 2011 GAM prize, she has exhibited her work in both Europe and America. Her first solo show, ‘Ghost Load’, was staged in 2015 at Cecilia Brunson Projects in London.
More of her work can be seen at
www.amygadney.com
Design
DAISY SWORDER is the self-taught design whizz responsible for taking the illustrations and calligraphy and breathing story through them. Meet Me in the In-Between is her first publishing project.
First published 2017 by Mantle
This electronic edition published 2017 by Mantle
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-5098-2899-9
Copyright © Bella Pollen 2017
Jacket typography: Amy Gadney, Cat artwork: Kate Boxer
Design: Ami Smithson, Pan Macmillan art department
Author photograph © Richard Round-Turner
The right of Bella Pollen to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Pan Macmillan does not have any control over, or any responsibility for, any author or third-party websites referred to in or on this book.
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