Other singers who have given me wonderful advice include Susan Parry, Penelope Shaw, Andy Busher, Christine Botes, Joanna Colledge and John Hudson.
I must thank my musician friends, who sometimes have rather trenchant views on singers. They include Chris and Jacoba Gale, Ian Pillow, Diggory Seacome, Luke Strevens, Jack and Linn Rothstein, Lance Green, who thought up the title Score!, and his wife Justine, Richard Hewitt and Steena and Marat Bisengaliev.
I have also been royally entertained and enlightened on the subject of opera by dear Sir Ian Hunter, Nicholas Kenyon, Michael Volpe, George Humphreys and Paul Hughes.
As Don Carlos in my book is set in modern dress, I spent an utterly magical two hours recce-ing the state rooms at Buckingham Palace for ideas. This was kindly organized by Claire Zammitt. These rooms are only open to the public from early August to early October. My director in Score!, however, visits the rooms in early spring, which was the only time it could be fitted into the plot. I hope Her Majesty will forgive the poetic licence.
St Peter’s Grange, a beautiful fifteenth-century retreat nestling in the wooded grounds of Prinknash Abbey, Gloucestershire, is the model for the abbey, around which filming and murder take place in Score!. I was very privileged to have Father Damien of Prinknash and Peter Clarkson to show me repeatedly over the house and garden and to answer endless questions on its dark and romantic history.
Score! is my first and almost certainly last whodunit. After battling with the complexities of murder, I rate the genius of Agatha Christie and P.D. James even higher than that of Einstein. I would have given up altogether had it not been for the kindness and co-operation of Gloucester and Stroud Police. No matter what hour I rang, no matter how fatuous the query, they entered into the spirit and never failed to provide an answer. Their only disagreement was whether the male member remains erect after the moment of death, Stroud maintaining it did, Gloucester it didn’t. Other police officers beguiled me with thrilling tales of murder and later waded through the manuscript for errors. They know who they are and the extent of my gratitude.
Gloucester Fire and Ambulance Services were just as helpful, particularly their assistant divisional officer, Graham Jewell. Gloucester Reference Library kindly checked names for me. The British Polio Fellowship, the British Film Industry and Weatherbys were also always ready with answers.
A writer does not automatically expect kindness from her own profession, but few could have been more welcoming and generous with their time than David Fingleton, Mel Cooper, Charles Osborne, Michael Coveney, Malcolm Hayes, Norman Lebrecht, Keith Clarke and Richard Fawkes of Classical Music, and James Jolly and Christopher Pollard of Gramophone.
I must also thank the authors of five books which were invaluable in helping me to understand my subject: The Colin Clark Diaries: The Prince, the Showgirl and Me; Ring Resounding, the marvellous account by the late John Culshaw of the first recording in stereo of Wagner’s Ring ; The Jigsaw Man, a study of criminal psychology by Paul Britton; John Baxter’s wonderful biography of Steven Spielberg; and the late Sir Rudolph Bing’s Five Thousand Nights at the Opera.
My friends as usual came up with endless ideas. They include Teddy Chad, Vanessa Calthorpe, Flavia Cooper, Val Hennessey, Huw Humphreys, Annabel Dinsdale, Richard Stilgoe, Graham Ogilvie, Harriet Capaldi, Godfrey Smith and his grandson, Max Cordell-Smith, Louise Naylor, Michael Cordy, Simon Craker, Marjorie and Peter Hendy, Jill Reay, Lizzy Moyle, Rowena Luard, Sarah King, Claire Williams, James and Georgie Carter, Maurice Leonard, Maria Prendergast, Philip Jones, Rob and Sharon Morgan. Alistair Horne and General Sir Peter Davies were brilliant on French soldiering; Peter Davies, the art writer, on French painters; Micky Suffolk on helicopters. Andrew Parker Bowles, Charlie Mann, Charlie Brooks on racing, Astrid St Aubyn and Zahra Hanbury on ghosts, my doctors Graham Hall and Pat Pearson and their staff at Frithwood surgery on medical matters and our vet, dear John Hunter, on animals.
Animals play a hugely important part in Score!, particularly the heroine’s dog, James, who is based on a shaggy red rescued lurcher of the same name, the adored pet of Alan Little of Gardners. No-one else in the book, however, is based on anyone, unless they are so famous – as David Mellor and Nigel Dempster are – that they appear as themselves. Score! I must emphasize is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to any living person or organization is purely coincidental.
I wish I had space to thank everyone who helped me. Those named were usually experts in their own field, but I took their advice only as far as it suited my plot, which in no way reflects on their expertise.
I am extremely grateful to Transworld for publishing Score! and to Broo Doherty for working so hard to edit it; to Neil Gower for drawing such a beautiful map; and to my agent Desmond Elliott and his assistant Douglas Kean for all their support and kindness. I’d also like to thank Jo Xuereb-Brennan, who provided marvellous advice when cuts in the original manuscript were asked for.
The real heroines of Score!, however, are my five friends, Pippa Birch, Annette Xuereb-Brennan, Anna Gibbs-Kennett, Mandy Williams and Caterina Krucker, who typed the huge manuscript in all its endless drafts and rewrites. I cannot thank them enough for their enthusiasm, industry and advice on everything from polo backhands to pregnancy kits.
I must especially thank my dear PA, Pippa Birch, for looking after me so beautifully, and my cleaner, Ann Mills, to whom Score! is dedicated, who has restored our house to order for the last fifteen years and is simply one of the nicest people I know.
The lion’s share of my gratitude as usual goes to my husband Leo, my children Felix and Emily, and my dogs, Hero and Bessie, who have put up with murder, literally, for the last three years, and have been constantly comforting and inspiring.
Table of Contents
Cover
About the Book
Title
Copyright
About the Author
By Jilly Cooper
Dedication
Cast of Characters
The Animals
Don Carlos: The Initial Cast of the Film
Map
Overture 1977
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter
71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Epilogue
Acknowledgements