In Search of Mary (30 page)

There were surprises, too. So many other worlds are all happening at the same time – you can take your pick – but there’s one thing they have in common. It’s that people are basically better than you may expect. They are kinder, more willing to share and much funnier than I ever hoped. This is worth putting to the test some time. Even with a baby. Especially with a baby…

The answers are all flying around my head, clashing and spinning like glitter in a snow globe. What matters? What is it that
matters? I look down at Will: he’s dreaming in his traditional spot in the next seat. Legs resting on my legs, arms flung up over his head, eyelids soft. I pick up his left foot and hold it for almost the whole flight. It fits into my hand. This won’t last. There’s everything I’ve learnt and then there’s this, right now, the best thing ever.

Acknowledgements

From the outset this book relied on the goodwill and generosity of others. I have an immense debt of gratitude to every person who appears in its pages, including those whose names have been changed to protect identities. If you’re in here: I love, thank and owe you a big one, for ever.

Some of the travel was funded by the Society of Authors’ K. Blundell Trust Award. The Society’s work promoting the interests and the very existence of writers is increasingly important, and much appreciated (
www.societyofauthors.org
).

Special behind-the-scenes thanks to Mark Skipworth, and to my wonderful agent Adrian Sington.

Thanks to my SOWsters, Rachel, Tahmima and Kamila – truly: without whom, and all that.

Huge thanks to the formidable combo of Alessandro Gallenzi and Elisabetta Minervini, and to everyone at Alma Books. What a joy to be published by you.

Thank you Mary Wollstonecraft. Thank you Yorkshire Tea. Does anyone read this part? I’ll just carry on… Thank you for buying this book. Please keep on buying books. Books are magic. Thank you, Books. Tha— what? OK, I’ll stop.

Photo: Laurie Sparham

Bee Rowlatt is a writer, journalist and broadcaster. She is a regular contributor to the
Daily Telegraph
and has reported for the World Service,
Newsnight
and BBC2. The co-author of the best-selling
Talking about Jane Austen in Baghdad
(Penguin, 2010) as well as one of the writers featured in Virago’s 2013 anthology
Fifty Shades of Feminism
, Bee received the K. Blundell Trust Award for
In Search of Mary
. She has four children and lives in London.