The Flask (22 page)

Acknowledgements

Very grateful thanks to Dr John Young, a Morris Minor enthusiast who allowed me access to his little moggie called – um, Roger the Wreck. Any resemblance between his Roger the Wreck and mine is purely coincidental. Gratitude too to Ron and Innes, my local garage men who have not just kept my old banger running for the best part of twenty years but who will also, if you slip them the odd doughnut, tell you about crankshafts and timing chains. Any errors are obviously mine.

My thanks to the Brighton Buddhist Centre and to Padmavajri (Lotus Diamond Thunderbolt) in particular, for her time and her generosity. Thanks also to Naissa Essart Nielsen – aged 11 – for her swiftly delivered and candid thoughts.

And then there’s Peter Tabern. Peter was the first person to notice that Jess was a girl. It’s a long story… which he read on several different occasions in several different incarnations, each time holding up a lantern so I could see what I’d actually written. Thank you very much, Peter. Every writer needs a Peter Tabern, but they don’t all get as lucky as me.

There’s also Charles Boyle. He didn’t allow me to thank him for what he did on my last book (
Knight Crew
) because he published it and he’s ludicrously modest. But he’s not in charge of this book, so here are the thanks, belated but very sincere. Tough luck, Charles, you can’t win them all.

Last but not least is Rachel Denwood. She decided she wanted to be my new editor before she’d seen a word of
The Flask
. It’s this sort of faith that keeps a writer going.

Also by Nicky Singer

Feather Boy

For older readers

Doll

The Innocent’s Story

GemX

Knight Crew

Copyright

Text copyright © Nicky Singer 2011

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

ISBN-HB 978 0 00 743876 1

ISBN-TPB 978 0 00 743877 8

EPub Edition © JANUARY 2012 ISBN: 9780007455102

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