Andy Serkis, Jonathan Cavendish, Chloe Sizer, Will Tennant, and the rest of the team at Imaginarium: it is a privilege to be working with you. Thank you for your dedication to every aspect of this book, far beyond the visual. On an artistic note, many thanks are owed to András Bereznay for designing the map; David Mann for the beautiful cover—you are the Mann—and Leiana Leatutufu for being my own personal automatiste.

To say this book has been my life for the past two years would be an understatement. There are far too many of you to name in this small space, but thank you so much to the friends that have been there for me over those years—and before them. A particularly big thanks to Neil Dymond and Fran Tracey; to Emma Forward, my inspiring English teacher; and to Rian, Jesica, and Richard for inviting me along to Ireland. If not for you, I’d never have met Molly Malone in person.

To my translators around the world, thank you for making this book available in more languages than I could ever master. Many thanks to Flo and Alie for giving me a hand with French and Serbian names, and to Devora at Agam Books for sharing her knowledge of Hebrew.

Thank you to all the people that have followed my blog and Twitter feed on the road to publication, especially Susan Hill. Your support has given me so much confidence. Extra thanks to the staff and students at St. Anne’s College for being so kind and accommodating over this last chaotic year. Stanner love.

And of course, thank you to my family—most of all to Mum, for giving me constant strength and support, and Mike, my super stepfather and the undisputed king of tasseography. The two of you have handled me at my worst, so in the spirit of Marilyn Monroe, you sure as hell deserve me at my best.

JD, thanks for being my muse for this one. You are my number one dead poet. And last but not least, thank you to Ali Smith for giving me the courage to send The Bone Season out into the world.

Thank you all for taking a chance on a dreamer.

A Note on the Author

A Note on the Author

Born in 1991, Samantha Shannon was brought up in West London, where she started writing novels at the age of fifteen. She is currently studying for a degree in English language and literature at St. Anne’s College, Oxford. The Bone Season is the first in a projected series of seven novels.

Follow Samantha on Twitter at @say_shannon and on her blog at