Authors: Terence Blacker
Phil Drabble’s chapter “Staffords and Baiting Sports” in
The Book of the Dog
(1948), edited by Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald, was useful for the sections in the Cock Inn.
From the days when it was but a ratling of an idea to its publication, this book has been lucky to have had great and encouraging champions. I am profoundly grateful to Caroline Sheldon, Xan Blacker, Paul Sidey, Georgina Capel, Anthony Cheetham, and my first and bravest reader, Angela Sykes.
It has been a joy and a pleasure to be edited by the brilliant Carter Hasegawa at Candlewick Press. I thank him for his wisdom and perceptiveness, and the team at Candlewick for their enthusiasm and professionalism.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.
Copyright © 2013 by Terence Blacker
Cover photograph of man and woman copyright © 2014 by André Burian/Corbis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
First U.S. electronic edition 2014
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2013955665
ISBN 978-0-7636-6902-7 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-7636-7420-5 (electronic)
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