If gratitude could be measured on the geological time scale, then what I owe Hugh Torrens, historian of technology and Professor of Geology at Keele University, would stretch beyond the age of the dinosaurs and survive the Permian extinction, only to disappear down the black hole of the Archaean still feeling inadequate. Without the benefit of his invaluable advice this novice historian would have taken aeons to find all the relevant materials, and this book would probably still be sitting on a word processor.

Finding out about another person's life is like writing a detective story – except that you are in it. Arthur Holmes left few clues about his private life and the ‘garden shed mystery’ was never fully resolved. A shed at the bottom of Doris' garden in Hove was believed to contain all Holmes' papers, but quite what happened to its contents when she died is not clear. I found some, but certainly not all. Although Geoffrey Holmes, Arthur's son, sadly died before I had a chance to meet him, I was delighted when I finally tracked down Geoffrey's wife Karla, and their four children.