I have a hugely soft spot for Newbury, not just for its stylish beauty but for the most delicious glass of champagne I and other Thoroughbred Ladies enjoyed in the royal box, after our horse Island Flyer won his race. My thanks to joint managing director Stephen Higgins, Jeni Sieff and Natasha Berkeley.
More thanks to Louise Mitchell and Phil White for a Kentucky Challenge evening at Kempton Park, the perfect night out, and to the beautiful Becky Green for a gloriously funny summer evening at Fontwell where Richard Dunwoody, Honeysuckle Weeks and I judged an eco-beauty competition.
I loved my visit to Wincanton, but sadly failed to get to Wetherby to research an important chapter in the book. Invaluable help, however, was received from Jonjo Sanderson about the course and from Josephine Shilton about the famous White Rose restaurant.
I owe a bumper debt of gratitude to Sarah Driscoll, peerless press officer at Aintree, for providing so much information and to Andrew Tulloch, Clerk of the Course, for all his advice.
I was guided to another massive stepping stone by Richard Pitman, one of the most delightful and helpful men in racing, when he introduced me to Diana Keen of Sunset and Vine, the ace production company employed by the BBC to broadcast the Grand National to more than 600,000,000 viewers. Dear Diana allowed me to sit in on a vast production meeting on the morning of the National, marvel over multi-monitors in the control room and hurtle round the course before and during the race in a BBC car with rigger driver John Anderson and cameraman David Taylor. This unique privilege enabled me to witness the making of a beautiful film about a heroic race.
Fiona Macdonald, one of the team of Spotters who report on fallers at every fence, and Harriet Loxley from the Royal Liverpool Hospital also provided invaluable information.
Jump racing is one of the most dangerous sports in the world. Where else, as A. P. McCoy pointed out, would you be permanently followed by a convoy of vets, doctors and ambulances? Horses and jockeys win, suffer injury and die. I would, however,
like to stress the valiant efforts made by the people who run racecourses to make both track and fences more forgiving.
On the same subject, I would particularly like to salute Sebastian Garner, a wonderful horse ambulance man, who at both Aintree and Cheltenham allowed me to witness the kindness and quiet competence with which he eased the pain of injured horses and dispatched the fatally injured into the next world.
Any horse’s death is tragic, but I wish animal rights activists would direct their fire more towards the ghastly long distances that horses have to travel to slaughterhouses abroad, or against vicious, deliberate cruelty.
In
Jump
! my horse heroine, Mrs Wilkinson, is discovered appallingly mutilated in a wood in the snow. Researching this, I spent a harrowing yet uplifting day with Ted Barnes, the awesome field officer of World Horse Welfare, who showed me how horrifically neglected, even tortured horses, reduced to mere skeletons, are rescued and lovingly restored to healthy, happy and confident working lives.
Another stepping stone was meeting Helen Yeadon, who with her husband Michael runs the most wonderful sanctuary for retired and rescued racehorses at Greatwood in Wiltshire. Here these great animals are rested and nursed back to health and often new careers. In this Garden of Eden they bond not only with impossibly naughty Shetland ponies, goats and dogs and a rooster called Rodney, but most touchingly with autistic children who regularly visit the sanctuary. Helen herself gave me invaluable advice on restoring Mrs Wilkinson to health and happiness.
I’d also like to thank Janet Perrins, Greatwood’s fundraiser, Emma Cook of World Horse Welfare, and the Blue Cross and the Brooke Hospital for their help in horse rescue work.
My horse heroine, Mrs Wilkinson, loses an eye before she is saved so it was crucial to meet two gallant one-eyed mares, who won many races as well as the public’s adoration, to see how they coped with the argy-bargy of the racetrack.
The first mare was Material World, or Daisy, a terrific character as tough as she is adorable. Owned and trained by Suzy Smith and Sergio Graham-Jones down in Brighton, she is now happily in foal to Shirocco. The second mare is Barshiba, trained by the great David Elsworth, who recently won a major race at Haydock with Hayley Turner up.
One of my heroes does a stint in gaol where he finds huge satisfaction in looking after one of the rescued racehorses being restored to health in the prison stables. I am therefore grateful
again to Andrew Parker Bowles, founder and former chairman of Retraining of Racehorses (ROR), and to Di Arbuthnot, its director of operations, who pioneered a similar scheme at Hollesley Bay Prison in Suffolk.
Leaving prison, my hero works in a yard and dreams of becoming a jockey. Like many stable staff, he realizes this dream by taking a course at the excellent Northern Racing College in Doncaster. Again, I must thank the racing school’s training coordinator, Michelle Beardsley, for her help.
It was also a great thrill to watch Leroy Jones, a stable lad at Tom George’s, come fourth out of a large field when he made his debut in the Berkeley Hunt point-to-point at Woodford last year. I would like to thank John Berkeley, president of the hunt, hunt secretary Tom Whittaker and Louis Purvis, head of the hunt supporters, for a marvellous afternoon.
One of my favourite characters in
Jump
! is Chisolm, a goat, who becomes Mrs Wilkinson’s inseparable companion after being rescued from a dreadful fate. I would like to thank Southern Animal Rights Coalition, and especially Niccy Tapping, for their help on this subject. Marilyn Sheppard, a goat addict, told me some wonderful stories about these idiosyncratic creatures. I am hugely indebted to Hazel Johns for sharing her wonderful knowledge of geese and ganders and for her take on the mysteries of nature.
I must thank Tom and Sophie George for inviting me to a Lawn Meet at their house, where I was able to witness in glorious surroundings how hunting operates after the ban.
Another stepping stone in the book was meeting Tom and Sophie’s then head lad, Sally (Minnie) Hall, who is encyclopaedic in her knowledge of horses and racing, and spent hours discussing my story with me. To see her working with horses was also an inspiration and although we miss her in Gloucestershire I am glad she is now a trainer herself in Bedfordshire and one of her young horses, Clerk’s Choice, has already notched up three wins.
The winter game, as jump racing is romantically known, produces, like Minnie, the most marvellous women: strong, combining beauty with kindness like Shakespeare’s Sylvia, capable of rising in the dark to ride out, partying until first light, yet retaining a work ethic to die for. Glamorous Amazons – I call them Glamazons.
Two Glamazons – Liz Ampairee, marketing guru, and Jacques Malone, who runs her own PR company in Dublin – truly looked after me while I wrote
Jump
!, endlessly answering questions, coming up with ideas, taking me to the races, introducing me to owners, trainers and jockeys, and entering wonderfully into the spirit of the book.
Jacques, in particular, took me and Liz on a magic trip to Dublin, which included a day at Leopardstown races, for which I must thank Jane Davies, a glorious dinner in the evening given by J. P. and Noreen McManus and a fascinating and illuminating Cheltenham Preview at the Shelbourne Hotel hosted by Betchronicle the following night. All this provided terrific copy for the book. I cannot begin to express my thanks enough to Liz and Jacques.
Another Glamazon is Carey Buckler, daughter of trainer Bob Buckler, who came for a couple of days’ work experience and ended up regaling me with marvellous tales about everyone in racing. Another was Charlotte Kinchin, who after waitressing at the Pheasant Inn, riding out and driving round trainers, was a mine of glorious gossip.
Hospitality in jump racing is Olympian. Nothing lifts the spirits on a bitterly cold winter’s day like a Bull Shot or a glass of champagne in a warm box. I am, therefore, eternally grateful to my dear former editor Veronica Wadley and her husband Tom Bower, John Boyle of Boyle Sports, the team from Betchronicle, Harriet Collins at Johnno Spencer Consultancy, John Woodhatch of Equine Effects, and Emma Jesson the weather queen.
Libelling humans is to be avoided in books, and even worse is to libel a horse. So I tried very hard, particularly with badly behaved horses, not to give them names that had been used before. Huge thanks therefore to Rachel Andrews and Emma Day at Weatherbys and Jo Saunders for checking these names for me and I hope none has slipped through the net.
There is quite a lot of sex in
Jump
! – some of it equine. I am therefore most grateful to John Sharp of Weatherbys’ stud department for his advice and to Ali Rea for arranging a miraculous visit to the Darley Stud in Newmarket. Here Richard Knight took me on an exhilarating tour of the breeding yards and the stables, where I was thrilled to meet the mighty New Approach.
I would also like to thank Ed Sackville, an ace bloodstock agent, Jane Mead and Corrin Wood who told me about rearing thoroughbred foals. My neighbour, Penny Smith, a Highland pony breeder, whose mares and foals and visiting stallions across the valley are a constant joy, waxed lyrical on the equine delights of ‘stolen service’.
Most of the people who helped me in the writing of the book are experts in their field, but as
Jump
! is fiction I’m afraid I only followed their advice when it suited my plot. My woman jockey, for example, breaks the rules by remounting in a point-to-point
around 2005 and, as I believe in miracles, criminally maltreated horses recover and win big races.
And talking of miracles it would be difficult to overstate my admiration for the racing press, who file such immaculate, exciting and poetic copy at such lightning speed. Icons include Brough Scott, Marcus Armytage, Alan Lee, Julian Muscat, Charlie Brooks, Jonathan Powell, Colin Mackenzie, Marcus Townend, Alastair Down, Andrew Longmore, Robin Oakley, the great revered John Oaksey and Ivor Herbert, and the late lamented Clement Freud.
The
Racing Post
is another miracle, as readable as it is all-embracing. I am so grateful to its editor, Bruce Millington, and associate editor, another greyhound lover, Howard Wright.
Horse and Hound
frequently inspired me and one of the bonuses of being an owner has been the monthly arrival of
Thoroughbred Owner and Breeder
, which is as sparky and as beautiful to look at as the horses it features.
Normally I write in a gazebo at the bottom of the garden, but I abandoned this for the top of the house so I could watch racing coverage on Channel 4, the BBC and the glorious At
The Races
while I worked. I must thank all three for the beauty, information and entertainment of their programmes and would express particular gratitude to the great John and Booby McCririck, Richard Pitman, Robert Cooper (who loves Material World), Jim McGrath, Mike Cattermole who took me up to the commentary box at Cheltenham, Clare Balding, Johnnie Francome, Matt Chapman, Sean Boyce, Alice Plunkett, Luke Harvey, Nick Luck and the irrepressible Derek Thompson.
Jump
! is largely based in a Cotswold village called Willowwood, which in a way resembles our lovely village of Bisley, which has a beautiful church, a great school and a golden stone high street. No one in the story, however, is based on any living person and any similarities are purely coincidental, unless the person is so famous, like John McCririck, that he appears as himself.
Many other people helped me with
Jump
! Our own delightful vicar, Simon Richards, and curate, Stephen Jarvis, were eloquent on church matters. Tree surgeon Tim Bendle and Simon Toomer, who runs the glorious Westonbirt Arboretum, advised me on trees. Phil Bradley, who drove me all over the country, initiated me into the skills and hazards of goalkeeping. Rupert Proctor advised me on betting. Inspector Mark Ravenscroft of Operational Services and Chris Miller were brilliant on explosives, and my super lawyer, Graham Ogilvie, wised me up on the law. Adam and Nat Phillips inspired me on houses and cockpit-
shaped offices as did Judy Zatonski on greyhounds. Bill Holland with his usual sweet nature answered the most obscure musical queries. Wonderful Stephen Simson at Hatchards as usual tracked down endless books. Susanna Franklyn was witty and illuminating on the theatre. Bob and Derelie Cherry enlightened me on rose grafting as did Mariska Kay on lovely clothes and Anne Spackman of Kenneth Green Associates on lovely scent.
I would also like to thank my wonderful bank, Hoares, and especially Bella Hopewell and John Gallop for looking after me.
On the veterinary front, I had great advice from my own vet, John Hunter and his staff at Bowbridge Veterinary Group, from Shirley Bevan and, particularly on hairline fractures, from Emma Ridgeway at the Willesley Equine Clinic.
Pat Pearson and my own doctor, Tim Crouch, advised on medical matters, and my super dentist Terry Mason on straightening buck teeth.
Of the younger generation, Poppy and Charlie Stirland, Harry Luard and Kit Cooper educated me on teenage slang, and Luke and Freddie Mander on excellent speeches.
Willowwood is threatened by widespread flooding in
Jump
! A huge thanks therefore to our local neighbourhood warden, Ashley Nicholson, for providing graphic descriptions of wrestling with the Gloucestershire floods and the helicopter rescues these entailed. Our own local papers, particularly the
Stroud News
, the
Citizen
and the
Gloucester Echo
, also covered these events most dramatically.