Acknowledgements

Firstly, an enormous thank you to my wife, Annie, not just for all the usual, but for her invaluable assistance in reading through and commenting on the manuscript during the editing process, when I was greatly in need of another point of view.

Secondly, the usual round of people, ‘Without Whom’: Simon Kavanagh, Peter Lavery and Julie Crisp, Chloe Healy and everyone else at Tor; Pete Bayly and the regulars at Oxford and Reading. In particular thanks to Helen Walter for being my consultant armourer.

Finally, for diverse secret reasons, a special thanks to Lasse Skjalm, Johnny Burlin and Anders Åström.

A glossary of characters and places can be found at the end of the book.