Now to praise the wonderful people who transformed Charlotte into a book. First, my very clever agent Oli Munson at A.M. Heath, who made the placing the manuscript look easy (also Florence Rees, who first championed my MS); and the enchanting Eleanor Dryden, who coached me from London via Skype (waving a mug with HANGOVER stencilled on it), and made the initial offer for the manuscript. Then came the rest of the Bonnier team, an entire platoon of fairy godparents. MD Kate Parkin believed in the book from the outset, Margaret Stead, my wise publisher, has been appropriately steadfast and steadying, Clare Kelly keeps a stream of fantastic publicity coming, and Katie Lumsden is unfailingly helpful with matters both great and small, as well as being another Austen Sister. Alexandra Alldren read the manuscript closely, and then produced this most beautiful and apposite cover, as well as the exquisite endpapers. Stephen Dumughn is the maestro of marketing – also responsible for the beauty of the advance proof copies. Arjumand Siddiqui, Elise Burns, Stuart Finglass, Vincent Kelleher, Ruth Logan, and Stella Giatrakou make up the rest of Team Charlotte, and I look forward to our adventures together. Copyeditor Rhian McKay took great care over these pages, and I remain impressed that she picked up my misspelling of ‘violoncello’. Neilwe Mashigo of Jonathan Ball, who handles distribution in South Africa, is always swift with action and reassurance.

They say an index of emotional maturity is the ability to be happy for the successes of others. In which case, my friends must be the most balanced people in the world. The best thing so far about publishing Charlotte has been sharing news of her progress and witnessing their joy. This is especially true of my parents, Rodney and Dinah Moffett, and my sister and niece, Kathy and Lauren Wootton.

Finally, I want to circle back to Paige and Sarah, aka Mrs P and Mrs S, aka the Porn Elves. Without you, Charlotte would not exist, and I might not either. This is as much your book as mine.