Our book and website were several years in the making, and could not have been accomplished without the help of many people. Indeed, one of the really great experiences for me, during the past few years, has been meeting so many extraordinary and dedicated scientists and conservationists. Among them they have accomplished so much, and I have been overwhelmed by their willingness to share their knowledge, and to read, correct, and add to the accounts I had written about their projects. Such generosity. I cannot thank them enough.

These Acknowledgements follow the Table of Contents for Hope for Animals and Their World. An abbreviated version of this appears in the book, but here, on this Website, I wanted to take the opportunity to fully list and thanks the many people who helped make all this possible.

Section 1: Lost in the Wild

The chapter describing the rescue of the black-footed ferret from extinction was enriched by information from Travis Livieri, Paul Marinari, Dean Biggins, Steve and Louise Forrest, Brent Houston, and Brian Miller. And Shawn Gressel, a native Sioux, shared with me his work to reintroduce these ferrets to his tribal lands, the Lower Brule reservation.

Kenneth Johnson and Gary Fry provided me with information about the rescue of the little rufous hare wallaby or mala—I was so grateful for the opportunity to meet one. And Chris West and Peter Clark of the Monarto zoo shared the delightful story of the black-flanked rock wallaby. It was Polly Cervallos of JGI-Australia who introduced me to these people and arranged my trip so that I could meet them.

I am deeply grateful to Noel Snyder, who breathed life into the story of the California condors. And I am so grateful also to Don Lindburg of the San Diego Zoological Society, who introduced me to the captive condors there, and the recovery team at the Los Angeles Zoo, especially Mike Clark who told me many stories, and Susie Kasielke who circulated all my materials to the relevant people and collected up their comments and corrections. Much gratitude to Mike Wallace, who gave me a fascinating account of the personalities of the condors he released in Baja California that appear on our website. And thank you to Bill Woolam for his stories.

It was Dr. Guo Geng who first introduced me to the Pere David’s deer or milu in the Deer Park near Beijing. He told me that I should talk with Maja Boyd, who has provided me with much wonderful material about the milu story. She introduced me to the director of the Deer Park, Zhang Li Yuan, and to Professor Wang Zongyi, who has been a key player in the project. I learned a great deal about the project as they took me around the park. Lord Robin Russell invited me and my sister, Judy, to visit the herd at Woburn Abbey; afterward we had a wonderful evening discussing the remarkable story of the milu. I am very grateful to Robin also for making available archival photos. And to David Lefranc and Jeroen Haijtink of JGI-France who diligently and persistently tracked down the historic photograph of Pere Armand David, savior of the Pere David’s deer.

I am deeply grateful to Barry Braden, Chris Lucash, Michael Morse, and Buddy Fazio, who were incredibly helpful in providing information about the red wolf. They spent hours going through my manuscript and telling me stories. And Diane Hendry tracked down and sent us many photographs.

Dave Jarvis added valuable information to the inspirational story of the Pedder galaxias, a small and beautiful New Zealand fish, the rescue of which is featured on our website. And it was Jake Wickerham, brother of my friend Josh, who helped us track down Dave in the first place.

I also want to thank Mark Stanley Price, who provided a lot of information about his project to successfully reintroduce the Arabian oryx to Oman. (This story is not in the book; sadly, although the antelopes adapted very well to life in the desert, in the end every single individual was shot.)

Section 2: Saved at the Eleventh Hour

Many thanks to Devra Kleiman, who introduced me to the golden lion tamarins of the National Zoo in Washington, DC, and provided valuable information about the captive breeding program, and also Benjamin Beck, who told me a great deal about their reintroduction to the wild.

Frank Mazzotti and Joe Wasilewski shared their wonderful stories and extensive knowledge about the American crocodile.

I could not have written the chapter about the peregrine falcon without the help of Tom Cade; I learned more from my talk with Bill Heinrich. And our thanks to Amy Siedenstrang, who helped us greatly with acquiring photographs.

I am really grateful to Lou Perrotti and Jack Mulvena, who drove miles to meet with me, early on a Sunday morning, and talk about the fascinating story of the American burying beetle. And I am very grateful to George Archibald for his introduction to Dr. Yongmei Xi, who shared with me the wonderful story of how she helped to rescue the crested ibis from extinction in China. We had a great meeting coordinated by Tori Zwisler of JGI-China.

My deepest and most sincere thanks to Ernie Kuyt, who told me so many stories about his days with the whooping crane. I was thrilled that George Archibald allowed me to share the story of his courtship with a female whooping crane. My heartfelt gratitude to Joe Duff and his amazing team for allowing me to experience the ultimate thrill of flying with the cranes in an ultralight. And my thanks also to Tom Stehn, Whooping Crane Coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, for hosting my visit to Aransas and to Mike Stinson for organizing the visit. I also thank John French, and the rest of the team at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center for sharing their knowledge about the breeding program. Especial thanks to Kathleen (Kathy) O’Malley, for reviewing my material and for sharing so many personal stories that appear on our website. Ann M. Burke and Jane Chandler also helped me immensely by reviewing facts and historical information.

It was Alison Jolly who first suggested I include the Ploughshare Tortoise, and Lee Durrell of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (originally, the Jersey Wildlife Conservation Trust) who pointed me toward Don Reid and Joanna Durbin, both of whom were immensely helpful.

I learned about the saving of the Formosan landlocked salmon from the enthusiastic Dr. Lin-yan Liao, who was most generous with his stories. And I am really grateful to Kelly Kok of JGI-Taiwan, who contacted him on my behalf and translated his information.

I want to thank Andrew Bryant, who shared his enthusiasm and love for the Vancouver Island marmot with me—and spared time to talk on the phone and meet in person.

And my thanks to Ruth Shea ,Tom Koerner and Shilo Comeau for sharing her knowledge and passion about the restoration of the trumpeter swan as it is presented on this website. I am also grateful to Phil Bishop for the information he sent me about the Hamilton’s frog of New Zealand, another great story you can find on this website.

Section 3: Never Giving Up

I met with Miguel Angel Simon to learn about his program to protect the Iberian lynx in the wild, and I visited Astrid Vargas and her team at the captive breeding center, where I met the lynxes themselves. Federico Bogdanowicz and Feran Guallar of JGI-Spain helped to arrange these meetings.

My good friend John Hare provided wonderful stories about the wild Bactrian camels and their forbidding desert habitat.

Many people contributed to the chapter on the giant panda, and I thank them all: George Schaller, Don Lindburg, Matthew Durnin, and Devra Kleiman all provided information on the program in China, and Erika Helms of JGI-China helped me with some additional information. Wonderful accounts of births in captivity came from Don Lindburg (San Diego Zoo) and also Dr. Eveline Dungl and Harry Schwammer (Zoo Vienna).

Lee Durrell introduced me to Dr. Gautam Narayan, current custodian of the pygmy hog recovery program. I am so grateful for the time he spent telling me about these charming little animals and their eventual reintroduction into the wild.

When I visited the northern bald ibis colony at the Konrad Lorenz Institute, the director and all the staff were wonderfully helpful. Fritz Johannes and his wife, Angelika, told me of their exciting efforts to teach some of the ibis a migration route between Austria and Italy. And the whole visit was arranged by Walter Inmann, Gudrun Schindler, and Melissa Tauber of JGI-Austria.

I am so grateful to Rod Sayler, Len Zeoli, and Lisa Shipley, who introduced me to the enchanting pygmy rabbits. And thanks to Becky Elias, who gave us updates on Grasshopper, the rabbit I met close up.

I had a long telephone conversation with Terry Rossignol about his experience with the Attwater’s prairie chicken recovery program and was very inspired by his passion and dedication.

The tragedy of the Asian vulture population crash and the various efforts to protect these birds was brought vividly to life during my meetings with Mike Pandey, Jemima Parry-Jones, and Manoj Gautam, all of whom are working with other dedicated people to try to save them.

Ken Reininger and especially Kathleen Misajon and Darcy Hu were extremely helpful when I was writing the story of the Hawaiian goose, or nene. And the rescue of the Chinese alligator, which is featured on our website, was written with a great deal of help from John Thorbjarnarson.

Section 4: Island Paradise

Don Merton put a tremendous amount of effort into providing information and critiquing the material on the black robin and a number of other endangered bird species—especially the kakapo, New Zealand’s large flightless parrot. This utterly fascinating story appears in full on our website.

Don also provided information about the restoration of the Abbott’s booby and its habitat on Christmas Island, and I learned a great deal also from Max and Beverly Orchard about their work to help this species.

I could not have done justice to the saga of the cahow (or Bermuda petrel) without the long talks I had with both David Wingate and Jeremy Madeiros. And I am grateful to David Baum, who gave me the phone number of his longtime friend David Wingate.

Carl Jones shared with me his love of the wilderness and its creatures, and his stories about his successful efforts to save three birds of Mauritius from the very brink of extinction.

Hiroshi Hasegawa’s love for the short-tailed albatross and the daunting task of saving the species is another very special story. I was able to speak to Hiroshi several times and had the distinct pleasure of meeting him in Tokyo. I am grateful to Professor Gen Idani of JGI-Japan for arranging that meeting. Judy Jacobs added details of this bird’s reintroduction to a new island home. And Kirk Hart shared with me the excitement he felt when he saw his first short-tailed albatross.

The chapter about the woodhen of Lord Howe’s Island appears on this website, and I am very grateful to Glenn Fraser for his comments on this rather endearing bird. The story about Gould’s petrel is also on this website—and I am so thankful to Nicholas Carlile for his help in providing information for and reviewing this chapter.

Section 5: The Thrill of Discovery

Dr. Tim Davenport of WCS reviewed what I wrote about his team’s discovery of the kipunji in Tanzania and also helped us get photos.

Dr. Blanca Huertas of the British Museum of Natural History told me, over the phone, of her fascinating discoveries in the Yariguies Mountains of Colombia. During our lively talk, she also provided invaluable information about the arguments for and against the need to kill type specimens for the proper classification of new species.

Both Christian Rabeling and Stefan Cover talked with great excitement about Christian’s discovery of the “Ant from Mars.” And I spoke also to that ant specialist of all time, the illustrious Professor E. O. Wilson, who, when fetched from his office to look at the new ant, had exclaimed that it looked like “something from Mars.” Which, of course, is how it got its name.

I had a wonderful talk with the enthusiastic student Israel Naamon, who discovered the Ayalon Cave, and to whom I was introduced by his professor, Amos Frumkin of the Hebrew University.

I must thank my DC dentist John Conaghan, who introduced me to his next-door neighbour, Bruce Beeler of Conservation International. And Bruce provided wonderful information about his expedition to the Foja Mountains of Papua New Guinea where so many fabulous discoveries have been made.

In the chapter about species rediscovered—the Lazarus syndrome—I was hugely helped by Nicholas Carlile with the story of Lord Howe’s stick insect. Polly Cevallos, of JGI-Australia, subsequently arranged for me to visit the Melbourne Zoo, where Patrick Honan introduced me to the insects themselves and told me about the breeding program. Wonderful people, all of them.

I must thank Lee Durrell for putting me in touch with Quentin Bloxam with whom I talked at length about the Mallorcan midwife toad—even though he was just off for his honeymoon!

I enjoyed a wonderful and informative talk on the telephone with Frank Zino about his father and the extraordinary story of the rediscovery and restoration of the petrel named for him, Zino’s petrel—the abbreviated story appears in our book and the full story can be found on our website under “Island Paradise: The Struggle to Save Our Island Birds.”

Dr. Rod Gritten helped with information about the rediscovery of the glutinous snail, which appears on the website.

I spoke several times with both Brenda Dalton and Joan Talpin about the fascinating story of the rediscovery of the little Caspian horse. And thanks are due to Pat Bowles who introduced us to Brenda in the first place.

In the “Living Fossils” section, Dr. Tony Ribbink helped greatly with the story of the mysterious coelacanth, and helped us to get photos to illustrate the ancient fish. And I’m grateful to David Noble, who talked with me at length about his tremendously exciting discovery of the Wollemi pine.

Section 6: The Nature of Hope

In the chapter “Healing Earth’s Scars,” Rene Haller reviewed and commented on all the material about the restoration of the Bamburi quarry on the Kenya coast, and Bill Lautenbach gave us information about the most recent progress of the restoration of the landscape around Sudbury, Ontario. It was from my friend John Liu that I learned about the amazing restoration of the Loess Plateau in China. And Stephen S. Young provided information about the inspirational and informative story of the creation of the Cao Hai Nature Reserve, also in China. I am really grateful to all these people. These truly inspiring stories are featured in full on our website.

We also feature stories about the cleaning and restoration of polluted streams, rivers, and lakes. I am grateful to Mark Bain and Nancy Haley, who provided information about the shortnose sturgeon and the cleanup of the Hudson River. And to Amy Sprunger, manager of the National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada, who was incredibly helpful in sharing the story of the restoration of the environment of the moapa dace. Thanks also to Jennifer Carah, who cheered me on a very busy day with her information about the restoration of the Garcia River system and her sightings of young coho salmon in California. Kelly Kok arranged for me to visit the innovative river cleanup project in Taipei County, Taiwan, and then found and sent me the information I needed to write about it.

I wish there was space to thank every one of our JGI staff members on the TACARE restoration program around the Gombe National Park. But I must mention George Strunden, Emmanuel Mtiti, Mary Mavanza, Aristedes Kashula, and Amani Kingu, all of whom helped with the material that appears in this chapter.

A whole section, “Kingdom of the Plants,” appears on the website. It was one of my very favorite sections, and numerous people provided me with information about heroic efforts to save our endangered plant species. Peter Raven of the Missouri Botanical Gardens introduced me to many of the botanists and their stories. Hugh Bollinger sent me fascinating information that led me to other dedicated field biologists. And I am very much indebted to the team of dedicated horticulturists at Kew Botanical Gardens, Carlos Magdalena, Nick Johnson, John Sitch, and also Lourdes “Lulu” Rico-Arce, custodian of the impressive herbarium. And to Claire Quarendon of JGI-UK, who spoke with all of them, arranged our visit to Kew, and helped to get the photographs.

I gathered terrific stories about the saving of some of Australia’s glorious orchids from Paul Scannell of the Albury Botanic Gardens, NSW, and Andrew Pritchard, Department of Sustainability and Environment, in Warrnambool, Victoria. Both of them provided me with much information and many photographs. I had a wonderful conversation with Dr. Robert Robichaux about the glorious silverswords of Hawaii and the efforts of his team to restore them throughout as much of their range as possible.

Mike Balick and Dr. Andrew Henderson talked with me about their efforts to protect the last remaining carossier palms of Haiti. And John Sitch shared with me the amazing discovery of a new genus of palm on Mauritius. I am truly grateful to Victoria Willman, who shared her passion for the conservation of South African plants, especially Erica verticillata.

Thank you to Michael Park for sharing the excitement of the rediscovery of California’s fabled Mount Diablo buckwheat, and to Tim Rich of the National Museum of Wales for describing the elation of his team when they finally came upon the Snowdonia hawkweed. Another delightful rescue story was shared by Jo Meyerkord and Kathryn Kennedy, who told us how the exquisite little Robbins’ cinquefoil has been preserved in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

We were greatly helped in getting facts about the restoration of Guadalupe Island by Dr. Exequiel Ezcurra and Alfonso Aguirre Muñoz. And finally, I am really grateful to Robin Wall Kimmerer for permission to quote from her moving speech about the healing power of plants.

Another whole section that we couldn’t fit into the book was about the role played by the general public and by youth in conserving endangered species; it appears on our website. I had several conversations with Greg Ballmer about his efforts to save the Delhi sands giant flower-loving fly from extinction, and his extraordinary battle with a city council. And I went to the lab at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln to meet with the champions of the Salt Creek tiger beetle—Stephen Spomer and Leon Higley. It was Mitch Paine, a Roots & Shoots youth leader, who first told me about this drama, and how the beetle is helping to preserve a unique habitat in Nebraska. Artist Jessa Huebing-Reitinger generously allowed us to use one of her paintings.

A discussion about Safe Harbors appears on the website. Matt and Ann Magoffin provided us with information about their heroic efforts to protect the Chiricahua leopard frog. I went to visit Meredith Dreifus and her family to see firsthand their work to restore the habitat and protect the red-cockaded woodpecker. It is a fascinating story about a fascinating bird.

There are many young people who are working diligently to save and protect endangered species. Their stories are shared on our website. The S.O.S. R&S group has worked for many years to raise awareness and money to help the efforts to protect the endangered Channel Island fox. Susan Morris helped us to get recent information about the project initiated by her daughter, Alexandra. And we received a good deal of information from Channel Islands National Park biologist Tim Coonan.

I am grateful to Dan Fulton, who told me the story of twelve-year-old Nicole and her successful efforts to help trumpeter swans. And I am truly grateful for the information contributed to this book by R&S youth council members: Chase Pickering and Washo Shadowhawk in the United States, Manoj Gautam in Nepal, Tony Liu in China, and Itai Roffman in Israel.

Thane Maynard

I was extremely fortunate to meet with and interview a wide and fiercely bright cast of characters in the process of developing this book. Each was generous in sharing their expertise and passion for the species they are working to protect. These include Wangari Maathai and her staff from the Green Belt Movement; herpetologist Kent Vliet of the University of Florida on the American alligator; Pete Dunne of the Cape May Bird Observatory on bald eagle recovery; primatologist Anne Savage on cotton-top tamarins in Colombia; Montana State Representative Mike Phillips and field conservationist Rick McIntyre on the reintroduction of the gray wolf to Yellowstone National Park; Clay DeGayner on the conservation and population status of the Key Largo woodrat; Ron Austing on the comeback of the Kirtland’s warbler; Scott Eckert on Trinidad’s efforts to protect the leatherback sea turtle; Bernadette Plair on CRESTT and their successful reestablishment of blue-and-gold macaws in the Nariva Swamp of northern Trinidad; Greg Neudecker of the US Fish and Wildlife Service on the return of the trumpeter swan to the northern Rockies; Geoff Hill of Auburn University on ivory-billed woodpecker sightings in the Florida Panhandle; cetacean biologist Roger Payne on the Pacific gray whale; Bill Konstant, director of the Elmwood Park Zoo, on golden frog conservation in Panama; Bariushaa Munkhtsog of Mongolia on the return of the Przewalski’s horse to the wild; Terri Roth of the Cincinnati Zoo Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife(CREW) on Sumatran rhinoceros breeding; Greg Sherley on the endangered weta of New Zealand; and Michael Samways on the dragonflies of South Africa.

Each of these scientists and conservationists has stood in the gap when it mattered most for these species. You will find some of their stories in book and others are posted on the website.

Gail Hudson

Many thanks to my agent Mary Ann Naples of The Creative Culture for her outstanding support and guidance. And I am especially grateful to my husband Hal, daughter Gabrielle, and son Tennessee, who always support my work in the world.

Help from JGI and Worldwide Helpers

Erica Helms (JGI-China) helped to find out about the situation of the giant pandas after the earthquake and to facilitate my meetings with other scientists. Walter Innman and Gudrun Schindler of JGI-Austria arranged the visit to see the northern bald ibis. Dr. Anthony Collins and Dr. Grace Gobbo (JGI-Tanzania) helped to identify the plants from Gombe. Jane Lawton and Sophie Muset (JGI-Canada) helped to organize photos and arrange visits with scientists. Polly Cevallos and her husband Mark Richards, as well as Chris West and Anita Debenham of JGI Australia offered me great support as I visited the scientists of Australia in 2008.

Sally Eddows has done a tremendous job of developing endangered species products that will help to promote the book.

In the early stages of the book, JGI volunteer Joy Hotchkiss contacted scientists involved with the shortnose sturgeon, Chinese alligator, and red-cockaded woodpecker, and made preliminary interviews with some of them. She also got a release for the photo of Pere David.

And we are extremely grateful to Mary Paris, who edited all the photos that appear in the book and our Website.

Claire Jones was really helpful with gathering information for “What You Can Do.” And many thanks to Meredith Bailey, editorial assistant to Gail, who helped us enormously with the resources and material in the “What You Can Do” section.

Photography

All the photographs that you see in this book and on our Website were donated to us by the photographers. We are deeply grateful to all of them for their generosity and support. You will find their names in the photo credits, alongside their photographs.

We also want to thank and acknowledge the following people, who helped us gather and organize these many photos: Shalese Murray (Tom Mangelsen’s photography), Andrew Bennet (Tom Mangelsen’s photography), JoGayle Howard (black-footed ferret), Gary Fry (mala), Fr. Ed Udovic, CM (Pere David’s deer), Ann Mitchell (Pere David’s deer), Diane Hendry (red wolf), Bill Heinrich (peregrine falcon), Amy Siedenstrang (peregrine falcon), Louis Perrotti (American burying beetle), James Popham (whooping crane), Ann Burke (whooping crane), Christina Anderson (Thane’s assistant), Douglas W. Smith (gray wolf), Astrid Vargas (Iberian lynx), Antonio Rivas (Iberian lynx), Christina Simmons (giant panda), Caron Glover (pygmy hog), Mike Pandey (Asian vultures), Kathleen Misajon (nene), David Wingate (Bermuda petrel), Tony Ribbink (coelacanth), Penny Haworth (coelacanth), Vanessa Dinning (Wollemi pine), David Nobel (Wollemi pine), Stephen Monet (Sudbury, Ontario), Paul Scannell (crimson spider orchid), Christian Rabeling (Ant from Mars).

I am filled with enormous gratitude to the staff of the Global Office of the Founder—GOOF. They have supported me throughout these somewhat desperate years, when the book hung around my neck like a millstone. Rob Sassor contacted a great many people during the first few years of the book, interviewing them and providing me with information; he was really enthused by this project, and his help was invaluable. I missed him when he moved to Tanzania. But even from far off, he was still willing to jump in and help when we needed information at the last minute. Stephen Ham, who stepped into Rob’s position, also helped to contact scientists and organize meetings.

Susana Name, working with Mary Lewis, somehow managed to fit in—often at the last minute—meetings with scientists involved in rescuing some of the species discussed in this book, sometimes coordinating with other JGIs overseas. Susana has an eleven-year-old son, and I want to thank you, Christian, for understanding when your mother is home late for work.

There is absolutely no way that the photographs for this book could have been gathered from far-flung corners of the globe, organized, and evaluated without the dedicated, detailed, and persistent efforts of Christin Jones. She never gave up on getting an image. She was terrific to work with. And she was indefatigable—even major surgery could not, for long, keep her from putting the last photos in order. What a hero! I remember a time when she, Gail, and I sat in my room in the Roger Smith Hotel with five different laptops open, making our final photo selections and starting work on the captions. At the end we looked at each other with bleary eyes and thanked the powers that be that we all had such a great sense of humor.

Grand Central

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our publishing team at Grand Central. Editor Natalie Kaire stayed in close contact with us and went through the original long version of the book a few times, helping us make tough decisions about what should be cut, from both text and photographs. Managing Editor Robert Castillo took good care of the copy editing while respecting my voice. In particular, I am grateful to Executive Vice President and Publisher Jamie Raab for creating this Website for the book and allowing us to use far more photographs than originally planned. She has been by my side through several books and been a real support and friend.

Friends and Family

As I travel around the world, I am supported—and often nurtured—by wonderful friends. They have helped to give me the energy I needed to finally finish this book. I cannot thank them all—there are too many. A number have been mentioned, for many of the JGI people are truly my friends. I have special words of gratitude for Michael Neugebauer, who has helped me greatly in Austria, Taiwan, and Japan and who has been a friend for years.

And a special thank-you also to Tom Mangelsen, who has not only provided a number of his magnificent photographs but also introduced me to Ernie Kuyt and to the team that saved the black-footed ferret from extinction. And when I suddenly found I had five free days for working on this book, Tom allowed me to write in his peaceful house in Jackson Hole. I enjoyed the company of his dog, Loup (who has since tragically died), and total blissful solitude while Tom was photographing in the Mexican rain forest. I truly value the hours Tom and I have spent discussing endangered species and conservation, and enjoying the beauty of the wild places. His Website is www.mangelsen.com.

At times, over the past few years, I had the feeling that this book was a tyrant, standing over me, whip in hand, driving me to work in every spare moment. I could never have got through the months and years without Mary Lewis, staunch companion of the road. Mary was the master coordinator of my crazy schedule, working miracles to ensure I got to fly with the cranes, spend the night with the ferrets, and meet the countless heroes described in Hope for Animals and Their World. And then, of course, there is her sense of humor. What a friend she is. It is sad she is not here as I type the last words of this marathon—but recovering from replacement hip surgery in the UK.

My crazy schedule and the need to spend all free moments wedded to the book has meant that I had less time than usual for my son and grandchildren—thank you all for understanding. And a very special thank-you to my very special sister, Judy. If she wasn’t there in the Birches, I would have had no bolt-hole in which to hide, to write, between trips around the globe. Judy, with her quiet common sense and strong support, was my anchor in the storm.