Many thanks, as always, to the tireless Mairead Reidy for uncovering some of the authentic history and coming up with Emma Dent’s classic volume. Allan Watson for putting his immortal soul on the line.
And Cindy sends his thanks, for the journey, to John Matthews, working shaman, authority on all things Celtic and author of more books than you could fit on this page, notably Cindy’s bible (though you’ll never get him to admit it)
The Celtic Shaman
(Rider).
Thanks to Megan and Chris Stuart for putting me on to…
… Gavin Henderson, TV producer with serious
Big Brother
credentials, who was hugely helpful from the start and throughout the writing. Any technical implausibilities are entirely down to me and the demands of
Big Other
, as are the less-than-ethical methods employed by Leo Defford.
Many thanks to Sara O’Keefe and Maddie West at Corvus, who got the idea from the beginning, to Louise Cullen and Liz Hatherell for excellent fine-tuning. And, as ever, to my wife, Carol, who spent weeks editing the manuscript with her usual precision and (literary) scepticism and came up with the programme title
Big Other
before this book was even begun. After that, no going back.