A Ghost at the Door (43 page)

Mary Hamilton provided a delightful evening at the Henley Festival on which I relied for one of the opening scenes, and Kevin Hughes was always willing to respond to my questions about the City
of London. My colleague of far too many years, John Ranelagh, will, I hope, forgive me for stealing his family name.

Another dear friend was Shukri Ghanem. We met more than forty years ago at the Fetcher School of Law and Diplomacy. I helped type his doctoral thesis on oil pricing. We went our separate ways
and he eventually became a controversial prime minister of Libya. He died recently under mysterious circumstances. I used his inspiring memory for the character of Ali Abu al-Masri.

I have taken creative liberties with so much of the advice and information I have been given. I hope those who provided it will forgive me.

A Ghost at the Door
is a story of fathers and sons, and the unavoidable impact they have on each other. Inevitably I have mined the relationship I had with my own father for ideas and I
found the process therapeutic. He lived at Bride in the Isle of Man for the last and happiest years of his life. I hope much the same can be said for Johnnie.

And as this is a book about family, my own family – Rachel and the boys – as always have earned the biggest round of applause. I do it all for them, just as they do every thing for
me.