The Heat of the Sun

favourite book of mine for years, fuelled my interest in old (very old) pop music. Sir Hubert Parry’s setting of
‘Fear No More...’ appears in Charles Vincent’s anthology Fifty Shakspere Songs (1906). Tartarin de Tarascon (1872) by Alphonse Daudet was a novel Puccini planned to
adapt as an opera, before scrapping the project in favour of Madama Butterfly.
    Antony Heaven gave me the idea for this book. Roz Kaveney read it at just the right time. The London Library was, as ever, my best resource. I am grateful to Ravi Mirchandani, Margaret Stead,
Orlando Whitfield, Richard Evans, and all at Atlantic Books in London, and Steve Rubin, Barbara Jones, Kenn Russell, Kathleen Lord, Rebecca Seltzer, Joanna Levine, and all at Henry Holt in New
York. Thanks to Ian Pindar, Charlotte Webb, and Colin Tate. Special thanks to my agent, Sara Menguc, for her patience, persistence, and belief.