Pyg (28 page)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The Editor would like to extend his thanks to those who were among T
OBY’S
first and most devoted
Friends
: Mary Cappello and Jean Walton (in
whose home this book first was read aloud), Brendan, Noah and Caeli Carr-Potter, Huw Lewis-Jones and Kari Herbert, Joe Zornado and Denise Leathers. For her persistent faith and skill in
representing this book, I am indebted to my wonderful agent, Malaga Baldi. And to Jamie Byng, who at once understood and embraced T
OBY’S
story, and has since worked
with such extraordinary energy to bring it to the world at large, I will always be deeply grateful.

I would also like to thank my editor Jenny Lord, along with Norah Perkins, Hazel Orme and all the rest of the talented staff at Canongate Books. That T
OBY’S
narrative is being published by a Press whose offices are—quite literally—a stone’s throw from his actual home, seems to me almost an act of
Fate
,
whose unpredictable fingers, sooner or later, manage to fit every Tale into its Telling. Thanks also to my classicist colleague Gary Grund for assistance with the
Latin
passages. And last,
but very far from least, this book is for the
closest
of my Animal companions, Harvey and Chester.

ENDNOTE

1
. This, I should like to add, was the once piece of bad advice I ever Reciev’d from Mr Sheldon, as this ‘small concern’
was later to be known as
The Times
of London, and be the principal organ of the Metropolis.