I am particularly indebted to Dr Brian Harrison, who was the chief supervisor of this work in its earlier form as a doctoral thesis, and who proved throughout to be a model of that put-upon breed. Patient and rigorous, challenging without being intimidating, always sympathetic and interested, even where disclaiming expertise, and attentive to personal and social, as well as academic, needs, he helped ease much of the pain involved in the birth of a book such as this and contributed positively to much of the pleasure.

I was fortunate to have the services, at earlier and later stages of the work's gestation, of others equally skilled in the arts of intellectual midwifery. To Professor Alan McBriar, who supervised previous work of mine on a rather different (though related) topic, I owe the inspiration to embark on a study of Fabianism. He has been kind enough to cast his uncanny editorial eye over all of the drafts for the present work and has thus saved me from a number of slips and solecisms. To Professor Norman MacKenzie and his wife, Jeanne, I am indebted for invaluable assistance with research materials at an early stage of the work, for some very stimulating comments on its completion as a thesis, and for the encouragement to revise and publish it in book-form. Their support and generosity have been a source of continual reassurance.