I have to mention, Anthony Merrick appears with credit in the opening two chapters: first, by actually inviting Nicola to breakfast having realised (i)Patrick will have invited Ginty; and (ii) he won't have invited Nicola, and breaking up the rather too personalised teasing over kedgeree without appearing to make a fuss or drawing attention to the fact he's doing it: "Patrick's perfectly capable of falling off his own animal" is just nice (and, literally, pointing out that pride comes before a fall.)