When I pondered settings for this wintry book my friend Pia Fenton, who is also author Christina Courtenay, suggested that one of them be Sweden. As well as masterminding the research trip she was my tour guide, historian, translator and host. Thank you so much, Pia! She lined up her friends and relatives to help and the only thing I had to do was organise a hotel in Stockholm for three days. I booked the wrong one.

I’m also enormously grateful to:

Pia’s mother, Birgitta Tapper, who hosted me in her lovely home in Småland, provided delicious Swedish food and taught me about ice hockey. She took us to see Swedish Hockey League team HV71 play in Jönköping, a wonderful evening that left me in awe of the lightning-quick, skilful sport and its players.

Lars and Chicki Jonsson provided delicious fika (coffee and cake break) while they talked about teenage ice hockey. They, Pia and Gunbritt Lager shared their memories of growing up in Sweden.

Anthony Tapper and Malikah Semakula welcomed me into their apartment in Östermalm and generously answered a hundred questions about Östermalm Man and Stockholm life.

Carol Dahlén-Fräjdin, Victor, Lisa and Johan Fräjdin gave me a delicious lunch and kindly illuminated the Swedish education system in interesting and relatable detail.

Nat and Eugene Powell offered entertaining and valuable insight into moving to Sweden and learning Swedish.

Anna Rambëck gave us a lovely evening chatting about Stockholm in the Ice Bar and then over Swedish meatballs.

Back in the UK, my niece Véronique Moorcroft, who you might know under her pen names of Ella Allbright and Nikki Moore, provided essential HR information and advice.

Nurses David and Julia Roberts shared their knowledge of the recovery timeline of an elderly lady with a broken arm.

Anne Dicks helped me with rural retail outlets and their signage.

Andrea Crellin never seems to mind me turning an evening out into a research trip and answered questions on primary schools in England.

Helen Cook responded to my Facebook plea for insight into fostering and social workers. Facebook and Twitter friends were also helpful on the likes and dislikes of eight-year-old girls, VW camper vans and campsites at Christmas.

As with all my recent books, my brother Trevor Moorcroft undertook significant amounts of early research on most subjects that arise in Christmas Wishes. He also heroically reread all my Middledip books to create spreadsheets of characters and places and in which novels they appear. We call these The Middledip Bibles. (If you’d like to know more about Middledip, go to www.suemoorcroft.com>Writing>Middledip Books and Map.)

Mark West was a first reader of Christmas Wishes and made helpful suggestions in his ever-entertaining style. My thanks to him and also to the other members of Team Sue Moorcroft, not only for their fabulous support but for suggesting character and place names.