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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many, many thanks to all the fantastic nurses and doctors at King’s and St Thomas’ hospitals, whose humour and intelligence helped make the whole experience bearable. Thanks too to everyone at The Haven, in particular Eve Warren and Gosia Gorna, who helped me start heading in the right direction. Big thanks to my talented old friend, Nick Abadzis, for nudging me back into cartoons and for all his encouragement whilst writing the book. Also to Nicola Streeten and Sarah Lightman of Laydeez do Comics. Thanks to Alexa von Hirschberg for her sensitive and intelligent editing, Peter Dawson for his thoughtful design and layout and Kirsty McLachlan for liking and believing in the book! But most of all, thanks to all my lovely friends and family who put up with my shenanigans and helped me stay sane during my cancer treatments, and a special thanks to Corinne Pearlman for all of her support.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Rachael Ball is a cartoonist and a teacher. Her illustrations and cartoons have appeared in various publications including City Life, Deadline, the Times Educational Supplement and the Radio Times. This is her first graphic novel.
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Bloomsbury Publishing An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10018 UK USA www.bloomsbury.com BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in Great Britain 2015 © Rachael Ball, 2015 Rachael Ball has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. pp.6, 520–21, 528–31: Excerpts from ‘Last Night I was Sleeping’ from Times Alone by Antonio Machado, translated by Robert Bly © 1983. Reprinted with permission of Wesleyan University Press. pp.439, 448, 455: Excerpt from ‘Tonight I Can Write…’ from Selected Poems by Pablo Neruda, translated by W.S. Merwin and published by Vintage Classics, an imprint of Vintage Publishing. Vintage Publishing is a part of the Penguin Random House group of companies. p.462: Excerpt from ‘If You Forget Me’ from The Captain’s Verses by Pablo Neruda, translated by Donald D. Walsh, ©1972 Pablo Neruda and Donald D. Walsh. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. Every reasonable effort has been made to trace copyright holders of material reproduced in this book, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers would be glad to hear from them. This is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication data has been applied for. ISBN: HB: 978-1-4088-5807-3 ePub: 978-1-4088-5808-0 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1 Designed by Peter Dawson, www.gradedesign.com Printed and bound in China by C&C Printing To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com. Here you will find extracts, author interviews, details of forthcoming events and the option to sign up for our newsletters.
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