He’s the future now. Best not to dwell on the past. That’s what the lady of this house tells me. I know she meant it kindly and, while she doesn’t know what she’s talking about, she is a little more right than she realises. What happens next is all that matters. That’s the truth.
About the Author
George Pitcher is a journalist by background and a vicar in the Church of England. A Dark Nativity is his first novel.
Acknowledgements
As journalists know, it can take a long time and a lot of people to stand up a story. And this story took more than most. First of all, thank you to Unbound, which has come up with the astonishing concept for the publishing industry that books can be published that have not been written before by someone else. So to the team at Unbound: Thanks to Dan for being my first supporter (in every way), John for not remembering me, Mark B for the video, Phil for making it work, Georgia for the campaign, Rachael – ah, especially Rachael – for listening to Nat and understanding what she was trying to say, Anna for the ruthless timeline, Mark E for the cover, Justine for the copy-edit, DeAndra for the rigour of the proofs, Charlotte for the suave PR, Penguin Random House for the distribution and all the bar staff at the Narrowboat.
Also: Jo Goldsmith for telling me what Nat did as a foreignaid worker and for playing Nat in the video, because she didn’t want to, our daughter Eddi for explaining how Nat talks and Mobbs for losing me to the study. Thank you, Natalie, for letting me into your world and, finally, thank you for buying this book or, perhaps, just borrowing it.
Supporters
Unbound is a new kind of publishing house. Our books are funded directly by readers. This was a very popular idea during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Now we have revived it for the internet age. It allows authors to write the books they really want to write and readers to support the books they would most like to see published.
The names listed below are of readers who have pledged their support and made this book happen. If you’d like to join them, visit www.unbound.com.
Ian Anderson
James Anderson
Christine Armstrong
Martin Baker
Charlotte & Bill Bannister-Parker
Josh & Sophie Bayliss
Jon Bennett
Neil Bennett
William Bonwitt
John Booth
Jean-Claude Bragard
Richard Bridges
Matthew Butler
Tomas Carruthers
Andrew Carson
Anne Cheng
Robert Chote
Roger Clark
Anthony Collins
Daniel Colson
Joseph Connolly
Richard & Alison Cundall
Jonathan Acton Davis
Caroline Delmonte
Malcolm Doney
Patrick Donovan
Mark Dubbery
Stuart Elliott
Julie Etchingham
Steve Falla
Carmel Fitzsimons
Sheila Fitzsimons
Tiago Fonseca
Ben Frankel
Gilli Fryzer
Christine Goodair
John Griffiths
Loyd Grossman
Kirstie Hamilton
Bridget Hargreave
Michael Harris
Neil Hayes
Stephen Heard
Simon and Diana Heffer
Gary Hicks
Alexander S Hoare
Julia Hobsbawm
Lucinda Horton
Ian Irvine
James Irving
Carole Irwin
Steve and Caro Jacobs
Joanna Jepson
Philip Johnston
Julia Jones
Sarah Jones
Simon Jones
Paul Kafka
Henrietta Kelly
Sian Kevill
Urmee Khan
Dan Kieran
Neal Lawson
Aideen Lee
William Lewis
Tim Livesey
Mike and Heather Love
Sarah Macdonald
Caroline Macfarland
Amanda Mackenzie
Stewart Maclean
Adam Macqueen
Jon Magidsohn
Tito Manto
Melvyn Marckus
Keith McDowall
Beany McLean
Ian McManus
Zoë Mezin
Dominic Midgley
David Mills
Victoria Mitchell
John Mitchinson
Harry Morton
Vazken Movsesian
Kathryn Mullaney
Carlo Navato
Nigel Newton
Alice & Ed Newton-Rex
Kate Nicholas
Lindsay Nicholson
Cristina Odone
Robert Phillips
Polly Pitcher
Tom Pitcher
Justin Pollard
Eve Poole
Hugh Pye
Jeff Randall
Mathew Rea
David Reed
Ben Rich
John Ridding
Daniel Rogers
Gill Roles
David Sceats
David Shepherd-Cross
Clive Stafford Smith
Stuart Smith
Stefan Stern
James Storm
Ruth Sunderland
Nicholas Taylor
Robert Taylor
Peter Thermer
Tilly Vacher
Anna Vaught
Patrick Walsh
Richard Warren
Sir Kenneth & Lady Warren
Martin Webb
Guy Weston
Simon Whale & the Luther Pendragon team
Michael White
Andrew Wilkins
Peter Wilson
Lisa Wong
Charles Melville Wright
Martin Wroe
Teresa Wynne
Kimia Zabihyan
This edition first published in 2017
Unbound
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70 Conduit Street, London W1S 2GF
www.unbound.com
All rights reserved
© George Pitcher, 2017
The right of George Pitcher to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Text Design by Ellipsis, Glasgow
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78352-434-1 (trade hbk)
ISBN 978-1-78352-436-5 (ebook)
ISBN 978-1-78352-435-8 (limited edition)
Printed in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK)
