Authors: Robert McCrum
Disabled Living Centres Council, 286 Camden Road, London N7 OBJ
Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, 222 Queen St., Suite 1402, Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 5V9, Canada. Tel: 1-613-569-4361
Keep Able, Fleming Close, Park Farm, Wellingborough, Northants NN8 3BR. Tel: 01933 679426.
Nottingham Rehab Limited, 17 Ludlow Hill Road, West Bridgeford, Nottingham NG2 6HD. Tel: 01159 452345
The Stroke Association, CHSA House, 123–127 White-cross Street, London EC1Y 8JJ. Tel: 0171 490 7999
RADAR (Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation), 12 City Forum, 250 City Road, London EC1V 8AF. Tel: 0171 250 3222
I gratefully acknowledge thanks to Faber & Faber for permission to quote from ‘Sheep’ by Ted Hughes.
Among the many relatives and friends and, in some cases, complete strangers, who offered support and encouragement during my year off I would especially like to thank: Roger Alton, Paul and Siri Auster, Julian Barnes, Glen and Carol Baxter, Stephen and Flo Bayley, Peter and Hilary Bazalgette, Blanche Belliveau, Don and Hilary Boyd, Will and Susan Boyd, Melvyn Bragg, Sally Brampton, Breyten Breytenbach, Bill Buford, Georgina Capel, Peter Carey, Ian Chapman, Elizabeth Clough, Amanda Conquy, Arnulf Conradi, Chris Corbin, Jenny Cottom, Charlotte Cory, Bill and Steffy Cran, Jan Dalley,
Michael Dibdin, Ray Dolan, Brian Dunn, Hilary Durgin, Peggy Edersheim, Valerie Eliot, Jack Emory, Morgan Entrekin, Julio Etchart, Liz and Martin Evans, Matthew Evans, Dr T. E. Faber, Anne Louise Fisher, Gary Fisketjon, Peter Florence, Robert Fox, Robert and Elizabeth Frayling Cork, Reg Gadney, Malcolm Gladwell, David Glynn, Jaco and Elizabeth Groot, David and Eileen Hammond, David Hare, Robert Harris and Gill Hornby, Monica Hart, Ian and Victoria Hislop, Julia Hobsbawm, Gerry Howard, Tanja Howarth, Ted and Carol Hughes, Will Hutton, Kazuo and Lorna Ishiguro, Edmund B. Jelkes, Howard Kaminsky, Pat Kavanagh, Julie Kavanagh and Ross MacGibbon, Dillie Keane, Garrison Keillor, Kate Kellaway, Jeremy King, Jean Korelitz, Sarah Lawson, Mario and Patricia Vargas Llosa, David Lyall, Sarah McCrum, Stephen and Emily McCrum, John McGahern, Joanna Mackle, Christopher and Koukla MacLehose, Mark and Trish Malloch Brown, Adam Mars-Jones, Belinda and Colin Matthews, Lucy Maycock, Caroline Michel, Peggy Miller, Rohinton and Freny Mistry, Arshad Mohammed, Lorrie Moore, Patricia Morison, Sara Mosle, Andrew Motion, Paul Muldoon, Ivan Nabokov, Deborah Needleman, Sue New, Rebecca Nicholson, David and Gwyneth Nissan, Redmond O’Hanlon, Donal O’Kelly, Michael Ondaatje, Helen Osborne, Bruce Palling, Tom and Giti Paulin, Jeremy Paxman, Doug Pepper, Adam Phillips, Caryl Phillips, Emma Platt, Jonathan Powell, Craig Raine, Jon Riley, Kathy Robbins, Deborah Rogers, Jane Rogers, Richard and Ruthie Rogers, Jacqueline Rose, Elizabeth Ruge, Alan and Lindsay Rusbridger, Salman Rushdie, Clive Siddall, Sarah Spankie, Sarah Stacey, Norman and Christine Stone, Peter Straus, Roger Straus, Alison Summers, Jocelyn Targett, Peter and
Helen Thomson, Hans and Susan Utsch, Ed Victor, Jacob Weisberg, Edmund White.
I have already mentioned the doctors who treated me, but I would especially like to thank Darina Richardson, Andrew Lees, Richard and Ruth Greenwood, Sue Edwards, Sam Machin, John Land, my acupuncturist Dr Zhu, and my speech therapists Veronica Noah, Renata Whurr, and Christina Shewell. Almost as important as the medical experts were the literary people who guided me through the writing of this book. First and foremost I must thank Binky Urban, Peter Straus, Gerry Howard, and most particularly Louise Dennys, who had the idea in the first place. Thanks, too, to the staff of my agents in London, Peters, Fraser and Dunlop, especially Michael Sissons, Anthony Jones, Carol MacArthur and Charles Walker. Finally, a special thank you to my all friends at Macmillan in London and WW Norton Inc. in New York.