As always, many thanks are due to my agent, Juliet Mushens, and to my editor, Jenny Parrott, for her wise suggestions, and to the team at Oneworld who have done so much to produce this novel: Molly Scull, Margot Weale, Ben Summers, Lucy Cooper, Laura McFarlane and Paul Nash.

My husband, Stein Ringen, planted the seed of this story when he suggested exploring the ‘evacuation’ of German scientists and science after World War II, and I am hugely grateful to him.

My dear friend, the late Raphael Samuel, an inspirational historian and intellectual entrepreneur, founded the Partisan Coffee House as ‘the first socialist coffee house in the country’ and ‘an anti-espresso bar’ in 1958. It closed in 1963, but in its short life it was the epicentre of radical and progressive thought and debate in politics, art, music, film, literature and design. The menu was eclectic, the coffee undrinkable, its influence on postwar cultural and socialist politics and thought immense.

Many friends, acquaintances and strangers shared their memories of the Partisan Coffee House and the early days of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, or gave me insights into the world of spooks, spies and Special Branch. This is a work of fiction, and some may find their insights or memories transposed in time and place. I hope, however, I have kept to the spirit of their words if not the letter, but any errors are entirely mine. Huge thanks therefore to: Anna Davin, Brigid Davin, Nick Henson, Tricia Leman, Jo Stanley, Mike Warburton, Andrew Whitehead, Nigel Young and from the shadows, as befits their craft, ‘X’ and ‘Z’. And for the introductions, Anna Davin, Guy de Jonquières and Richard Ralph.

A special thank you to Peter Huhne for his memories of postwar Berlin. I also owe posthumous thanks to my father, Arthur Chamberlain, for his stories of North Germany and Berlin in 1945 – and for the Kienzle clock acquired at that time.

Cecilia Ekbäck, Viv Graveson, Rosie Laurence, Laura McClelland, Sara Sarre, Saskia Sarginson, Gill Marshall-Andrews and Bob Marshall-Andrews read parts, or entire drafts, of this novel and gave me invaluable feedback, so many grateful thanks to them.

Throughout the writing of this book (during lockdown) I met (via Zoom) with my dear friends Sally Alexander and Ursula Owen, whose conversations on the war and postwar were invaluable in shaping my thinking, so a special thanks to them. And Bill Schwarz deserves a particular mention, too. He’ll know what for. (A small in-joke. Sorry.)

Sylvia and Hans-Joachim Kieling helped with my German, so continuing thanks to them.

Finally, of course, my wonderful family for all their love and support and for delivering, with impeccable timing, a new grandchild as I delivered the manuscript of The Forgotten to Oneworld.