Acknowledgements

Writing a book is much more of a team effort than many realise, and credit is due to the following. First of all to my agent John Syfret, also Patrick Walsh and Kathryn White who helped bring structure to my initial ideas; John Watkinson, Howard Watkinson, Mikael Reichel and Ben Smith, who took the time to read my early drafts – the end result is immeasurably better for their input; and the authors who took the time to respond to my queries about their work, notably Stephen Bayley, Rob Walker, Robert Hoekman Jr and Christopher Wickens. I’d also like to thank Vanessa Donnelly who has acted as a soundboard to develop my thinking over the last three years; Arthur Nurse for his excellent graphic design work; the editorial team at Pearson, especially Christopher Cudmore. The support of friends, family and colleagues has been invaluable: Martha Wiltshire, Mike ‘Bomber’ Reynolds, Claire Durrant, Ben Wall, Rob Syfret, Will Baker, Panos Damaskinidis, Bernard Grenville-Jones and Will Skjott. Finally, to my mum Annette Watkinson who taught me so much, not least of all that life is short – the time to start that project you always dreamed of completing is now.