Acknowledgements

Firstly, I acknowledge, with this list, the help of authors, living and deceased. Some who exist but are not on the list, I wish would desist. Have I read every word or every author? Of course not. Some I know very well, like Joyce, Beckett, T. S. Eliot. Others, I have a good working knowledge of, like Marx and Freud. Many I know as key texts. Some I have picked up and put down, or read at speed on Kindle. Yet others exist only as scripts or screenplays and form the core of great work. Yes, it’s a long list. But I have been reading every day for many decades. Authors pile up.

Adorno, Theodor, Aeschylus, Alcott, Louisa May, Alexie, Sherman, Alighieri, Dante, Allen, Woody, Allende, Isabel, Angelou, Maya, Aquinas, Thomas, Arendt, Hannah, Aristophanes, Aristotle, Arnold, Matthew, Austen, Jane, Augustine, St, Ayckbourn, Alan, Baldwin, James, Balthasar, Hans Urs von, Balzac, Honoré de, Beauvoir, Simone de, Beck, Aaron, Beckett, Samuel, Bellow, Saul, Benjamin, Walter, Bennett, Alan, Berkeley, George, Berlin, Isaiah, Bion, Wilfred, Blanchot, Maurice, Boethius, Bois, W.E.B. Du, Borges, Jorge Luis, Bowlby, John, Bradbury, Ray, Brecht, Bertolt, Brenton, Howard, Briers, Richard, Brontë, Anne, Brontë, Charlotte, Brontë, Emily, Butler, Judith, Camus, Albert, Capote, Truman, Celan, Paul, Cervantes, Miguel de, Chaucer, Geoffrey, Chekhov, Anton, Chomsky, Noam, Chopin, Kate, Christie, Agatha, Cicero, Citium, Zeno of, Clark, Andy, Colette, Confucius, Conrad, Joseph, Coppola, Francis Ford, Coward, Noël, Crane, Hart, Crane, Stephen, Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, Dahl, Roald, Defoe, Daniel, Deleuze, Gilles, DeLillo, Don, Derrida, Jacques, Descartes, René, Dewey, John, Dickens, Charles, Dickinson, Emily, Diderot, Denis, Diogenes, Dostoevsky, Fyodor, Dreyfuss, Richard, Du Maurier, Daphne, Dumas, Alexandre, Duras, Marguerite, Durrell, Lawrence, Duvall, Robert, Dylan, Bob, Eco, Umberto, Eliot, George, Eliot, T.S., Ellison, Ralph, Emerson, Ralph Waldo, Epictetus, Euripides, Fairbairn, W.R.D., Fanon, Frantz, Faulkner, William, Ferrari, Pier Francesco, Feuerbach, Ludwig, Fitzgerald, F. Scott, Flaubert, Gustave, Forman, Miloš, Forster, E.M., Foucault, Michel, Frears, Stephen, Freud, Anna, Freud, Sigmund, Friston, Karl, Frost, Robert, Gadamer, Hans-Georg, Galen, Galsworthy, John, Gethin, Rupert, Gilliam, Terry, Golding, William, Gordimer, Nadine, Gramsci, Antonio, Green, André, Greenaway, Peter, Greenberg, Jay R., Greene, Graham, Guattari, Félix, Guntrip, Harry, Hare, David, Hardy, Thomas, Hawthorne, Nathaniel, Heaney, Seamus, Hegel, G.W.F., Heidegger, Martin, Hemingway, Ernest, Heraclitus, Herodotus, Herzog, Werner, Hesiod, Hesse, Hermann, Hobbes, Thomas, Hoehl, Stefanie, Homer, Hopkins, Pauline Elizabeth, Hughes, Langston, Hume, David, Huxley, Aldous, Ibsen, Henrik, Irving, Washington, Ishiguro, Kazuo, James, Henry, James, William, Jefferson, Thomas, Joyce, James, Jung, Carl, Kafka, Franz, Kahneman, Daniel, Kant, Immanuel, Kawabata, Yasunari, Kazan, Elia, Kerouac, Jack, Kesey, Ken, Kety, Seymour, Khaldun, Ibn, Kierkegaard, Søren, King, Stephen, Kipling, Rudyard, Klein, Melanie, Kubrick, Stanley, Kundera, Milan, Lacan, Jacques, Lawrence, D.H., Lean, David, Lee, Harper, Leong, Victoria, Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, Leigh, Mike, Lessing, Doris, Lewis, C.S., Lewis, Sinclair, Locke, John, London, Jack, Longchenpa, Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, Lovecraft, H.P., Magnus, Albertus, Malle, Louis, Mann, Thomas, Marcuse, Herbert, Marx, Karl, Maugham, W. Somerset, McLuhan, Marshall, Melville, Herman, Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, Mill, John Stuart, Miller, Arthur, Milton, John, Minghella, Anthony, Mishima, Yukio, Mitchell, Stephen A., Montaigne, Michel de, Montesquieu, Morrison, Toni, Murakami, Haruki, Nabokov, Vladimir, Nietzsche, Friedrich, Nin, Anaïs, Ogden, Thomas, Orwell, George, Ovid, Pinker, Steven, Pinter, Harold, Plath, Sylvia, Plato, Plotinus, Poe, Edgar Allan, Polanski, Roman, Pollack, Sydney, Popper, Karl, Potter, Dennis, Pound, Ezra, Proclus, Proust, Marcel, Pynchon, Thomas, Ray, Nicholas, Renoir, Jean, Rorty, Richard, Roth, Philip, Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, Rushdie, Salman, Russell, Bertrand, Salinger, J.D., Sappho, Saramago, José, Sartre, Jean-Paul, Schopenhauer, Arthur, Scott, Ridley, Scott, Tony, Seneca, Shakespeare, William, Shaw, George Bernard, Shelley, Mary, Shelley, Percy Bysshe, Shepard, Sam, Simon, Neil, Sinclair, Upton, Smith, Zadie, Socrates, Sontag, Susan, Sophocles, Spark, Muriel, Spielberg, Steven, Spinoza, Stein, Gertrude, Steinbeck, John, Stoker, Bram, Stoppard, Tom, Strindberg, August, Suzuki, Shunryu, Swift, Jonathan, Tacitus, Tarantino, Quentin, Tarkovsky, Andrei, Terence, Thoreau, Henry David, Thucydides, Tolstoy, Leo, Trevarthen, Colwyn, Truffaut, François, Trungpa, Chögyam, Twain, Mark, Updike, John, van der Kolk, Bessel, Varda, Agnes, Verne, Jules, Vico, Giambattista, Vidal, Gore, Voltaire, Vonnegut, Kurt, Walker, Alice, Walser, Robert, Weber, Max, Weil, Simone, Weir, Peter, Welles, Orson, Welty, Eudora, Wharton, Edith, Whitehead, Alfred North, Whitman, Walt, Wilde, Oscar, Wilder, Billy, Williams, Tennessee, Winnicott, Donald, Wittgenstein, Ludwig, Woolf, Virginia, Wordsworth, William, Xenophon, X, Malcolm, Yeats, William Butler, Yuan, Qu, Zola, Emile. 

Secondly, I’d like to acknowledge the English language, which has had linguistic intercourse with, well, everyone and is still on speaking terms with its old lovers. I list here some of the more pleasant infections that it has contracted over centuries of promiscuity.

Old English (West Germanic): the core grammar and everyday words—the, and, do, come, wife, house, water; Old Norse (North Germanic): pronouns and basics—they, them, their; sky, take, law, window, egg; French/Anglo-Norman: government, law, cuisine, culture—government, court, justice, beef, cuisine, ballet; Latin (including medieval/scientific coinages): religion, scholarship, science—annual, radius, formula, data; Greek: science, medicine, politics—biology, physics, democracy, antibiotics; Italian: music, art, banking, trade—piano, soprano, fresco, balcony, studio; Spanish & Portuguese: exploration and food—savanna, embargo, patio; marmalade, molasses; Dutch/Low German: seafaring and trade—skipper, yacht, freight, pickle; Modern German: ideas and culture—kindergarten, zeitgeist, schadenfreude; Scandinavian (modern): civic life and leisure—ombudsman, smorgasbord, fjord, ski; Celtic (Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh): landscape and culture—whisky, shamrock, clan, bard, cwm, eisteddfod; Arabic (often via Romance): science and commerce—algebra, alcohol, almanac, saffron, tariff; Persian: trade and dress—bazaar, caravan, chess, pyjamas; Turkish: food and fixtures—yoghurt, kiosk, pasha; Hindi/Urdu and other South Asian languages: everyday UK English—shampoo, bungalow, pyjamas, chutney, khaki, loot, thug, chai; Chinese languages (Min Nan/Hokkien, Cantonese): global trade and culture—tea, ketchup, kowtow, typhoon; Japanese: modern culture and tech—tsunami, sushi, karaoke, emoji, anime; Malay/Indonesian: action and nature—amok, orangutan, sarong; Swahili: politics and travel—safari, uhuru; Southern African languages: social life—indaba, ubuntu; Nahuatl: New World staples—tomato, chocolate, coyote, avocado; Quechua: Andean life—llama, quinoa, condor; Tupí–Guaraní: fauna and food—jaguar, piranha, tapioca; Taíno/Arawakan: seafaring and weather—hammock, hurricane, canoe; Inuit: cold-weather kit—kayak, igloo, anorak; Polynesian: culture—taboo, tattoo; Australian Aboriginal languages: fauna and tools—kangaroo, boomerang, wallaby; Russian: politics and drink—sputnik, glasnost, perestroika, vodka; Czech: technology—robot; Hungarian: transport and arms—coach, hussar, paprika; Yiddish & Hebrew (often via Yiddish): food and character—bagel, schlep, chutzpah, kosher, hallelujah.