Next the Chillies. The Red Hot Chilli Writers host a delicious podcast if you’re ever in the mood for one, but they are also my writing support group. By turns they are patients and therapists. I can’t count the number of times that their wit and humour, their support and solidarity have rescued me from the pits of writing despair. So. Reluctantly. Thank you in totally random (picked out of a hat order) Amit AA Dhand, Ayisha Malik, Nadeem Khan, Abir Mukherjee, and absolutely least of all Vaseem Khan. Each of them are talented and brilliant writers and have given me something to aim for. Thank you, people. I should add a second thank you to Ayisha who edited an early version of the book and in the process taught me how to write betterer. Thank you.

Thank you to all the readers and the reviewers and the bloggers. The ones who tweet and the ones who silently read and breathe life into dusty pages. I fully and readily acknowledge what a huge privilege it is to be able to write at all and be published but also that it is the readers who bring the books into existence as stories. Thank you.

Finally, to Zoha and Shifa. I am so proud of you both. If I have written this book just for the pleasure of being able to say that, then it was worth it. I love you both to somewhere past heaven and back.

Also – you guys are very annoying A LOT of the time. Let’s not forget that.