The characters in this story are fictitious and their circumstances imaginary. "Halkins," "Redhurst," and "The Welbeck Hall" are likewise inventions, and are not intended as attempts to portray any institutions of a similar type. The war "incidents" described as occurring at the two former places have no parallel in actual events.
My apologies are due to the inhabitants of North Staffordshire for taking the same liberties with the geography of their county as I took in an earlier novel, Honourable Estate, which related the history of the Alleyndenes and the Rutherstons.
Thanks for valuable help are due to the B.B.C. (for kindly permitting quotation of the news bulletin in Chapter 11); the National Book Council; the Royal Observatory, Greenwich; the Howard League for Penal Reform; the Prison Medical Reform Council; Mr. Gerald Hamilton and the Evening News; Mr. Stephen Hobhouse;; Miss Helen Mayo; Mr. Dennis Gray Stoll; and Mr. Harold Clipstone.
I also acknowledge the kind permission given me by Mr. Geoffrey Bles to quote from Nicolas Berdyaev's Freedom and the Spirit, and to The Observer and the late Mr. William Soutar for allowing the quotation of his poem The Child. - Vera Brittain
My apologies are due to the inhabitants of North Staffordshire for taking the same liberties with the geography of their county as I took in an earlier novel, Honourable Estate, which related the history of the Alleyndenes and the Rutherstons.
Thanks for valuable help are due to the B.B.C. (for kindly permitting quotation of the news bulletin in Chapter 11); the National Book Council; the Royal Observatory, Greenwich; the Howard League for Penal Reform; the Prison Medical Reform Council; Mr. Gerald Hamilton and the Evening News; Mr. Stephen Hobhouse;; Miss Helen Mayo; Mr. Dennis Gray Stoll; and Mr. Harold Clipstone.
I also acknowledge the kind permission given me by Mr. Geoffrey Bles to quote from Nicolas Berdyaev's Freedom and the Spirit, and to The Observer and the late Mr. William Soutar for allowing the quotation of his poem The Child. - Vera Brittain
