Thank you to Adam for helping me create Tranquillum House, for stopping to answer strange random questions at intervals throughout the day, for waking me with coffee, for looking after me and for always being on my side. Thank you to George and Anna for being beautiful and for helpfully pointing out the swearwords whenever you saw my manuscript open on the screen. Thank you to my mother, Diane Moriarty, for help with proof-reading and for being the sort of mother who would thankfully never move to the south of France.
Writing can be a lonely job so I want to thank some of my ‘colleagues’ in the business. Thank you to my sisters and fellow writers Jaclyn Moriarty and Nicola Moriarty, and thank you to my friends and fellow writers Dianne Blacklock, Ber Carroll, Jojo Moyes and Marian Keyes. Thank you to the talented Caroline Lee for your wonderful narration of my audio books.
Thank you to Nicole Kidman, Per Saari and Bruna Papandrea for their extraordinary faith in this book before they’d read a single word.
Thank you to my readers. Like Frances, I have the loveliest readers in the world and every day I’m grateful to you.
I’ve dedicated this book to my sister Kati, and to my father, Bernie Moriarty, because they have always been so strong and brave and funny in the face of adversity and because I suspect even on their bad days they could do more push-ups than Masha.
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The following books were useful to me in my research: No Time to Say Goodbye: Surviving The Suicide of a Loved One by Carla Fine, Acid Test: LSD, Ecstasy and the Power to Heal by Tom Shroder, Therapy with Substance: Psycholytic Psychotherapy in the Twenty First Century by Dr Friederike Meckel Fischer, and The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley.
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If you or anyone you know is suffering from depression, call Lifeline on 13 11 14, beyondblue on 1800 22 4636, or Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800.