OK, this is really more of a glorified preface but I wanted to be sure that you didn’t skip it. I tend to skip prefaces because I prefer my experience of a book to be unbiased. I don’t want to know anyone else’s thoughts about a book – not even the author’s – until I’ve finished reading it and formed thoughts of my own. But this approach does have its risks: sometimes my expectations are wrong and I end up disappointed by a book that I might have otherwise enjoyed if I’d been properly prepared for it (Trainspotting, as it turns out, was not quite the ode to railways that I was hoping for . . .).So that’s what this introduction is about: setting expectations. Perhaps I should start with a bit of background.