whose help should be acknowledged. Invaluable histories included Charles Nicholl's The Reckoning (Vintage, 2002), Peter Blayney's The Bookshops in Paul's Cross Churchyard (Bibliographical Society of America, 1990) and Leslie Hotson's Death of Christopher Marlowe (The Nonesuch Press, 1925). The inspiration for a novella starring Christopher Marlowe came from a commission by Jamie Byng of Canongate Books. The National Library of Scotland's Robert Louis Stevenson Award and the Hotel Chevillon in Grez-sur-Loing gave me valuable peace and space in which to begin this narative. My agent David Miller, editor Judy Moir and the novelists Graeme Williamson and Zoe Strachan were each a source of support, advice and suggestions, the best of which I probably ignored, but would have been lost without.