Above: literary and society friends at Garsington Manor, home of Lady Ottoline Morrell and her husband the MP Philip Morrell. The artists, intellectuals and conscientious objectors who gathered at Garsington were lampooned by Aldous Huxley (also a frequent visitor) in the 1921 novel Crome Yellow (see Chapter 10).

So we are approaching the end, that is, the end of the subscripton drive for House of Fiction, coming up to the final proofread--hooray! And this means the last chance for subscribers to get their names in the book. For those of you who have already subscribed, and those who were early adopters of this project, a very large, glass full-up and clanking toast and thank you. I have been researching this book for nearly 8 years and writing for the last 3. You are wonderfully kind and supportive people to have taken an interest and put your funding toward the end result. 

As we are in the last stretch, I want to say thank you again to all of you and encourage you to invite anyone you think might share your long-standing enthusiasm for the project to subscribe by Sunday 12 March, which is when the listing for the supporters will close.

It has been a long but fascinating ride for me as a writer and I sincerely hope you will find the journey worth reading about.

Thanks again for being in this particularly enjoyable club.

Phyllis