Читать книгу How to Win Back Your Husband - Vivien Hampshire - Страница 5

With thanks to the SWWJ, the Romantic Novelists’ Association, Phrase Writers and some very special writing-based Facebook groups, where I have found so much advice, support, encouragement and friendship, of the kind only fellow writers can provide. Particular mention must go to Natalie, Francesca and the two Elaines, who went through the RNA’s New Writers Scheme alongside me. We have shared the highs and lows, our struggles, successes and occasional disappointments, with humour, sympathy and solidarity, and in the very best of company.

Special thanks to my anonymous RNA ‘reader’ for her positive and helpful comments after reading the first draft of this novel and for giving me the confidence and impetus to seek out the right publisher for it. Thanks also to Charlotte Mursell and Hannah Smith, my editors at HQ, who worked me hard to keep on improving the manuscript and making it the best it could be, and to Helena Newton, my copy editor, who spotted all the little nitty-gritty details that weren’t quite right and that I might otherwise have missed.

Thanks to the organisers, tutors and delegates of Writers’ Holiday, who gave me so many wonderful writerly weeks away, creating lasting friendships, filling me with ideas and inspiration, and showing me that, with focus, determination and a sprinkling of luck, just about anything is possible.

Thanks also to the fantastic staff at Barra Hall Children’s Centre in Hayes, especially Sarah, Claudette and Lorraine. As I wrote the scenes where Nicci is preparing snacks, comforting a child, picking glitter from her fingernails, or being consoled by compassionate colleagues, I was thinking of you!

And lastly, my love and thanks go to Paul, for understanding my need to hide away and write, often late into the night, and for designing and building me the perfect study in which to do it. In your own unique way, every one of you has helped me to realise my dream. I couldn’t have done it without you.