The Dark Clue (58 page)

I am extraordinarily lucky in having both an exceptional editor, Jon Riley, who guided me with his usual flawless judgement and attention to detail through the writing and revision process, and an outstanding agent, Derek Johns, without whose perspicacity and unflagging encouragement
The Dark Clue
would never have been conceived, let alone written.

I also want to acknowledge the help of my family, who all, in different ways, made an enormous contribution to the book – Paula by her inspiration and support; Tom, by taking an informed interest that went far beyond the call of duty; Kit, by gamely tolerating my eccentric hours and preoccupations; and my mother, by putting at my disposal her encycolpaedic knowledge of social history, and working indefatigably as a researcher (so saving me at least six month's work), critic and morale-booster.

And finally, of course – my thanks to Wilkie Collins and J. M. W. Turner.

This is, of course, a novel, not a work of non-fiction, and I do not intend to list all the many books I turned to in writing it. In view of the subject matter, however, I think I should point out that there have been (as far as I know) seven major biographies of Turner. I used of all of them to some extent, but am particularly indebted to the first, Walter Thornbury's much reviled but hugely entertaining (and often, I think, very perceptive)
Life and Correspondence of J.
M.
W. Turner
; to Jack Lindsay's
J. M. W. Turner: a Critical Biography,
whose psychological and political insights I found invaluable; and to James Hamilton's
Turner: A Life,
which is illuminated by a good deal of more recent scholarship. I also drew heavily on John Gage's virtuosic and inspiring J. M. W.
Turner: a Wonderful Range of Mind,
which – although not strictly a biography – is a superb introduction to the relationship between Turner's work and the cultural and intellectual world in which he lived.