Twelve Drummers Drumming (49 page)
For Gaylene Chestnut and Henrietta Wilde
It may take an individual to write a novel, but it takes a village to publish one. I’m very grateful to the residents of my village—to my astute agent, Dean Cooke, along with his colleague at the Cooke Agency, Sally Harding, for their early enthusiasm for this project, and to my wise editor at Random House, Kate Miciak, who makes the good better and the better best. I’m also grateful to Randall Klein, Loyale Coles, Margaret Benton, Maggie Hart, and Karin Batten at Random House for their finishing touches, and to Kristin Cochrane of Doubleday Canada for her attentions north of the forty-ninth parallel.
I am grateful to the people who read and criticised the early drafts of the manuscript of this book in its entirety—Rosie Chard, Annalee Greenberg, and Clark Saunders—and to those who read portions with a similarly critical eye—Sandra Vincent, Frances-Mary Brown, Perry Holmes, and Spencer Holmes. I am also grateful to those along the way who lent their expert advice: in Canada—Michael Phillips, Phoebe Man, Carrie Walker-Jones, Pierre Bédard, Neire Mercer, Bradley Curran, Ryan Schultz, Ross Taylor, and Amethya Weaver; and in England—Norman Betts, Paula Frain, Trish Lilly, and Jill Treby.
I am grateful, too, to the Manitoba Arts Council for its generous support during the writing of this book, and to the Winnipeg Public Library—notably to Tannis Gretzinger and Danielle Pilon—for helping to make my writer’s residency at the library pleasurable and productive.
I am most grateful to the Reverend David Treby, vicar of St. Mary and St. Gabriel’s Church in Stoke Gabriel, Devon, England, for his willingness, patience, and good humour in helping me navigate my way through the complexities of the Church of England and for lending a keen eye to the finished manuscript. Needless to say, all errors and peculiar interpretations are mine.
And to the author of the carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas”—thank you, whoever you are, wherever you are.
C C. B
ENISON
is the nom de plume of Doug Whiteway. He was educated at the University of Manitoba and at Carleton University, in Ottawa, and has worked as a writer and editor for newspapers and magazines, as a book editor, and as a contributor to nonfiction books. His first novel,
Death at Buckingham Palace
, published by Bantam Books, won an Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel.
Twelve Drummers Drumming
is his fifth novel. He lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba.