by Katy Moran
Acknowledgements
I am indebted to Karen Wallace for all those Fridays of looking after my youngest son, and also to my editor Rosie de Courcy and my agent Catherine Clarke for their unfailing support. I am so grateful to everyone at Head of Zeus, especially Lauren Atherton and the eagle-eyed Richenda Todd. In particular, I owe sincere thanks to Stephenjohn Holgate and Lisa Glass for their thoughtful commentaries on the manuscript, and also to Janice Lobb for the Cornish translations – and for her very kind help at an early stage with my research into Cornish history. My sincere gratitude also goes to Oliver Bullough for sharing his considerable knowledge of Russia and for gently pointing out that there are no mountain ranges this side of the Urals. A huge thank you to Jade Stock whose feedback at a critical moment was an absolute lifesaver, and all those who read Wicked by Design in the process of creation and pitched in with suggestions when I could see no way to proceed – Leila Rasheed, Ruth Warburton, Rachel Ward and Emma Pass all gave me crucial bits of advice at crucial moments. Heartfelt thanks are due to all at Waterloo Uncovered for the unparalleled insight into warfare, particularly to David Ulke and Mark Evans. Thanks also to the Coldstream Guards, re-enactors from His Majesty's 33rd Regiment of Foot, who were so generous with their knowledge. My eternal gratitude to John for our lively discussion just before Christmas about whether the ball would fall out of a muzzle-loading pistol if you were running under enemy fire (apologies to everyone else who was caught in the crossfire of this minority interest but enthusiastic discussion). Thanks are also due to Dr Anna Collar and Dr Stu Eve for answering my last-minute-panic questions about muskets. Thanks, too, to Dr Claire Shevlin for her excellent advice about being shot in the stomach. Last but by no means least, thank you to Laura and Rob at Rosemerryn for their kind hospitality on my reconnaissance trip, and the local residents who gave me such a warm welcome in the Wink, and to the kindly lady who stopped to give me a lift up the hill from Lamorna Cove because it was raining. Any errors in this book are my fault and, as writers always should, I hope to learn from mistakes that I have made.
About the Author
Katy Moran is the author of False Lights, published by Head of Zeus in 2017 under the pseudonym K.J. Whittaker and published as Hester and Crow on Kindle. After a career in publishing, Katy now works as a bookseller, and lives with her husband and three children in a ramshackle house in the Welsh borders.
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