Acknowledgements

Since I finished writing Us Three, the world has changed immeasurably. And it seems an age ago that I began this second foray into the world of prose fiction. It was a genuine labour of love and I feel that Catrin, Judith and Lana have now become my dear and cherished friends. I hope you enjoyed meeting them too.

There are so many people who helped bring Us Three to life:

Firstly there are the readers of Never Greener, whose generous and positive response to my first novel spurred me on to write my second. I thank you wholeheartedly. You are all lush.

There’s Frankie Gray, my superbly talented editor at Transworld. Frankie, I am so grateful to you for your patience, tenacity, optimism and faith, and for your ability to get the best out of me. You are amazing. And thank you, thank you to the rest of Team Transworld for making the novel-writing experience once again so bloomin’ enjoyable. Special thanks to the brilliant Alison Barrow and Vicky Palmer for holding my hand once the book entered the public domain and for dealing so smoothly with the challenges of lockdown. Also huge thanks to Larry Finlay for his kind words when he first read the book, to Bill Scott-Kerr, Hayley Barnes, Kate Samano and Imogen Nelson, and of course to the excellent audio book team, especially Alice Twomey, Chris Thompson and Cranc Studios in Cardiff.

Praise and gratitude must go, of course, to my wonderful agent, Jonny Geller, and to the team at Curtis Brown. Jonny, what a privilege it is to be both your client and old university friend. I am deeply appreciative of your calm and unstinting support, genius insights and wicked sense of humour.

Diolch o galon i Dawn French and Jojo Moyes, for your encouragement, wisdom and awe-inducing talent.

Thank you to Hannah Beckerman, brilliant novelist and writer, for reading an early draft and for giving such invaluable advice. (Thank you also for the Archers therapy!)

And a special efcharisto to Harry and Georgia Chacholiades for helping me with all things Cypriot and Cretan. I am so grateful to you both.

I dedicated the book to my friends. You know who you are and I am blessed to have you in my life. But I especially want to thank dear Nicola Merrigan, Carrie Grafham and Mairwen Williams for your early reading of Us Three and your superb feedback.

Thank you to Fiona Adams-Jones for your help and reminiscences, and to the lovely Ceri Hartland and Liza Milza for sharing your tales of interrailing in the mid-eighties. I’m sorry the Armenians didn’t really make it, but maybe in book three …?

Thank you to my cherished family for your continued love and support, especially Fi and Llew, Lula and Andrew, Alex and Selena. To Cerys (ein chwaer anrhydeddus), to my fabulous big brothers Mark and Julian, whose kindness floors me on a regular basis, and to my lovely baby sister Maria, for reading an early draft and regaling me with Med School stories.