Chapters (51)
- Dedication
- Contents
- PREVIOUSLY …
- PART I
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- PART II
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- PART III
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- PART IV
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- About the Author
- ALSO BY DAVID WRAGG
- About the Publisher
To that end, thanks once again to my literary agent and life coach Harry Illingworth, who continues to provide an inspiring template for the modern Yorkshireman, and all at DHH Literary Agency. To my fantastic editors, Natasha ‘Cleaver’ Bardon and Jack ‘Oblongs isn’t a word’ Renninson, Vicky ‘Proof-pusher’ Leech and all the production, marketing, and legal staff at HarperVoyager: thank you for creating this book and getting it out in the world. Thanks also to the perspicacious Verity Shaw and Linda Joyce, sublime cover designer Micaela Alcaino and magnificent cover artist Gavin Reece.
I’d also like to express a debt of gratitude to those who did so much to boost The Black Hawks upon its release, and make me feel welcome as a debut author in the process: Anna Stephens, Peter McLean, Ed McDonald, Nate Crowley, Den Patrick, Mike Shackle, and Peter Newman, and of course the incomparable Francesca Haig – thank you all so much.
And to the enthusiastic and glorious community of book bloggers and reviewers, further thanks are due: Andy ‘eBookwyrm’ Angel, Dave Graham, Nicole Sweeney, Stefan of Civilian Reader, Matt Craig of Reader Dad, Chris Meadows, Nils Shukla and Mike ‘Everest’ Evans and the Fantasy Hive crew, Hiu and the Fantasy Inn, David ‘Virtual Con Master’ Walters and Mada of FanFiAddict, Night at SoManyBooks6, and all the reviewers and bloggers who featured the book. Thank you all for spreading the good word – both I and the surly oafs of the Black Hawks are in your debt.
I’d also like to give a mention to the Super Relaxed Fantasy Club, now unable to meet for over a year but very much in our hearts (and video channels); to Phil, Magnus, Caro, and all the team, and all the regulars (and irregulars). See you again soon.
Thanks once more to my three advance readers and ideation devices, James G Smith, Adam Iley and Laz Roberts. One day, chaps, we will see each other again, but until then: cheers.
Eternal thanks and adoration to my spectacular wife, Sarah, who has borne the brunt of ‘my little writing habit’ more than anyone, and to my daughters, with whose own brunt we have become abundantly over-familiar in the last year. Thank you for sometimes being asleep, and leaving a few walls un-coloured.
Finally, thanks and love both profound and immeasurable to my parents, Lawrence and Aureole, to whom this book is dedicated, and without whom it’s statistically unlikely I’d have been around to write it. Thank you, Mum and Dad, and I will aim for fewer ‘fucks’ next time. Promise.
About the Author
Dave Wragg really got into writing stories just as he finished his English GCSE, then took about twenty years to get back to it. In the meantime, he studied software engineering, worked in global shipping and technical consultancy, and once spent a year in the Foreign Office ‘hiding in the basement’.