This blog wouldn't have been possible if my parents hadn't kept all the letters that passed between us during my years at Mary Hare; these letters form the framework around which all the other material can be put in place. If you're watching: thanks, Mum and Dad! Thanks, too, for writing to me in the first place (this includes my brothers, Jonathan and Philip, and various other correspondents). I certainly appreciated your letters all those years ago, and now I'm appreciating them all over again.

Thanks, Dad, for writing and keeping your diaries, which also play a large part in telling the story.

Thanks are also due, of course, to all who took part in the story itself. I may not have got along with all of you, and (obviously) didn't mix with everyone who was there (we tend to form friendships mostly with people our own age, after all), but you all added to the atmosphere of that unique institution.

Finally, a big thank you to all the inhabitants of the Mary Hare History Forum. Your reminiscences are reminding me of events I'd long forgotten about, and informing me of things of which I was never aware in the first place. Cheers, guys!