Show Me the Sky - Nicholas Hogg [105]
Acknowledgements
Novel-writing may be a solo endeavour, but this novel could not have been written without the following cast of very real characters.
First and foremost I must thank my agent, David Miller, for reading Show Me the Sky when he should have been eating lunch, and for the wisdom of submitting to Canongate, a better publisher for this book I could not imagine. The sharp editorial work of Anya Serota and Melissa Weatherill, and the input and attention of Jamie Byng have without doubt improved the manuscript.
For the accolade, financial support, publicity and the introduction to a group of fine writers, I am indebted to all at New Writing Ventures, and also Stephen Moran at the Willesden Herald. May your literary prizes run and run.
Many thanks to readers of earlier drafts – JT Boehm, Wes Brown, Vanessa Gebbie, Bilal Ghafoor, Tobias Hill, Victoria Hobbs, Michael Jones, Valeria Melchioretto, Wayne Milstead, Christine Scott and Jen Tilley – for tuning plot and prose. Your comments and suggestions proved vital encouragement.
Beyond the page I must give big thanks to my family, to the wonderful people of Ravitaki in Fiji, and to Rhys Carnall for reading me a John Burnside poem when the only art in my life was an axed TV. Thanks too for the love of music shared by James Disney and Jonathan Wade – though listening to their early gigs you would have thought they hated music. Days when a roof over my head and a good meal were precarious, I am for ever grateful to Chris Hughes and family. And also Jonathan Gibbard, whose generosity with his company credit card kept me in sake and sushi. The University of Leicester, for not expelling Tom Bristow, who believed literature was worth enough to risk leaking his log-on code so I could illegally use their computers. David Cook, whose slick website was an asset during submission. Karl Tyler, to whom I am thankful for living a life worth writing about, and for allowing me to fictionalise it in Zen. Gratitude also for the gang on the hill above Escondido: Alice, Rick, Tena, Maury, Tripp, Le Ly and of course the howling coyotes, for inviting me into their treasured space.
Last and most, thank you, my precious Sally, for your love and patience when I would have been happy to live in a ditch with a pencil.
Bibliography
I am indebted to the following sources as inspiration:
Bulu, J. (2000) Joel Bulu: The autobiography of a native minister in the South Seas. Tonga: Friendly Islands Bookshop.
Cargill, D. (1977) The Diaries and Correspondence of David Cargill, 1832–1843. Canberra: Australian National University Press, whose journal provided many factual details of the first missionary endeavours into Fiji.
Daipea, W. (1928). Cannibal Jack. London: Faber and Gwyer.
Scheuermann, E. and Tuiavii, Chief. Tuiavii’s Way, adapted and translated by P. Cavelti (1997). Toronto: Legacy Editions – whom Naqarase must nod to for tuning his voice, and his metaphors on loneliness and time.
Smith, W. (1813). Journal of a voyage in the missionary ship Duff.
New York: Collins & Co.
Williams, T. (1858). Fiji and the Fijians. London: Alexander Heylin. (Reprinted 1983 by The Fijian Museum, Suva.)
The Captain James Cook quote is directly from his logbook, but my attention to this entry was first piqued reading: Horowitz, T. (2002). Into the Blue: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before. London: Bloomsbury.
SHOW ME THE SKY
Nicholas Hogg was born in Leicester in 1974. After graduating from university he travelled widely, living in Japan, Fiji and America, and now lives in London. In 2005 he was awarded the New Writing Ventures award for fiction. Show Me the Sky is his first novel.
For more information visit ww.nicholashogg.com
First published in Great Britain in 2008 by
Canongate Books Ltd, 14 High Street,
Edinburgh, EH1 1TE
This digital edition first published in 2009
by Canongate Books
Copyright © Nicholas Hogg, 2008
The moral right of the author has been asserted
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