ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I must thank my business partner, co author, proofreader, creative genius, most fearsome critic, mother of my children and love of my life; Christine, you are my Brilliant Life. Also big love and a huge thank you to my Brilliant Children, Michael and Sarah, for your patience during this project and your input which I know you’ll read and say ‘That was my idea!’ Your contribution is noted, as is the request for a percentage of the royalties! A massive healthy thank you to Dr Fiona Ellis for her input and inspiration with the health section of this book – you are amazing; I could not have done it without you. Thank you to the Brilliant Team at Pearson who manage to take my ramblings and turn them into Brilliant Books. Rachael Stock, my editor for How to Have a Brilliant Life, who inspires me to raise my game with brutal honesty and total encouragement in just the right amounts. The production, admin, marketing and salespeople at Pearson – you are all so passionate about what you do and it shines. Thank you to Michael Foster at The Rights House for total faith (it’s coming) and Annabel Merullo for making me worth more. Thank you to all the other contributors whom I interviewed, bamboozled and ‘knowledge fished’ for extra information: Salvatore LaSpada, George Hepburn, Peter Field, Simon Woodroffe and countless others. I have a fabulous team at Michael Heppell Ltd who make my life easier every day. Vanessa, Ruth, Ali and Sheila an extra special thank you to you for getting Christine and I to where we need to be, building amazing loyalty with our clients to the point where they always make a point of telling us how fabulous you are and ensuring that it’s always a Brilliant Day at Michael Heppell. Thank you to Laura who keeps the ship shipshape even when the captain is pacing the deck. Welcome to the new people who have come into my life over the last year or so who support so strongly what we do: Peter and Sally, Glyn and Kay, Fi and Alun, Collette, Davina and Matthew, Sarah C and Fat Tony. Thank you to all my followers on twitter (I’m @michaelheppell) and to all my facebook friends (facebook.com/michaelheppellofficial) for getting involved. To our favourite clients (even though we know we shouldn’t have favourites) Steve, Fiona, Sarah and Paul; Alistair, Stephen and Gemma thank you for having faith in us and making work such fun. For technical wizardry Norman and Neil at Datawright, Justin at the team at Carrot Media you are the greatest geeks. Jonathan Raggett and the amazing people at Red Carnation Hotels you make our time away from home our home from home – you are the best in the world for a reason, thank you for being suppliers, clients and above all friends. A tuneful thank you to Philip Ball who has created the soundtrack to our lives. And to all my old friends and family (you know who you are), thank you for sticking by me. Thank you to God for giving me the gift of being able to speak with confidence, write at will and entertain daily. Thank you to all the booksellers who choose to stock this book: writing a book means nothing without the brilliant people who sell it. And finally thank you to you for being interested enough in creating your own Brilliant Life that you now own your very own copy.