Kate Hamer: The Girl in the Red Coat

To the great organisation that is Literature Wales — your support has been invaluable.

Ulrike Ostermeyer, the editor of the German edition, for your wonderful, inspiring enthusiasm.

Melissa Pimentel and Sven Van Damme at Curtis Brown for all your help. Thank you both!

Eleanor Rees for your elegant and astute copyediting. Luke Bird and Mark Swan for your stunning, hugely creative cover design — I love it!

To my parents — Christine and William — you are both an inspiration. To Lucy and Sophie, who are friends as well as sisters and such creative people. To my grandmother D.F. Southcott — I wish you were here to see this. To my two lovely children. To my husband Mark. In his book On Writing Stephen King mentions how often a writer turns out to have a supportive partner and I have that in spades. You have always encouraged me and never once suggested I might be crazy for wanting to write. This book is for you.

The author wishes to acknowledge the award of a New Writer’s Bursary from Literature Wales for the purpose of completing this book.

Kate Hamer grew up in Pembrokeshire. She completed a Creative Writing MA at Aberystwyth University and the Curtis Brown Creative novel-writing course. She won the Rhys Davies Short Story Competition in 2011 and her winning story was read out on BBC Radio 4. She has recently been awarded a Literature Wales bursary. She lives in Cardiff with her husband.