Banks Arron - The bad boys of Brexit: tales of mischief, mayhem & guerrilla warfare in the EU referendum campaign

This diary covers one of the most exhausting and intense twelve-month periods of my life.

In the heat of the campaign, I never even thought about writing a book, so my records were all a bit of a jumble. Anyway, I cant imagine myself sitting down religiously every evening and writing up the days events. So I have reconstructed what happened and what I thought at the time using emails, texts, documents, daily diaries and my own fallible memory.

Ive been careful not to give myself hindsight and have done my very best to capture exactly how I felt at the time. It is all still very vivid. I had a lot of help from Andy Wigmore, whose extraordinary memory for detail brought great colour to what is essentially a joint account.

The Leave.EU campaign was a huge collective endeavour and I want to thank those who, for one reason or another, do not receive their proper due in this book.

The team in Andys office in London made an invaluable contribution to the wider campaign, making sure that every EU failing was put under the microscope and every Remain campaign scare story squashed.

Special thanks to Brian Monteith, the head of press in that office, who very often had to pick up the pieces after Wiggy and I decided to lob a grenade into the debate; as well as our lead writer Jack Montgomery, who managed the press effort day to day, advised on online content and helped with this book.

No less indispensable was Jordan Ryan, who had the dubious pleasure of serving as Wiggys only adviser in the early days of the campaign and created our very best original content, often on personal initiative.

We absolutely could not have done without Victoria Hughes, who organised everything from the Grassroots Out rallies to Nigels battle bus tour. Putting these events together while also trying to keep on top of Wiggys whereabouts was like herding cats with rabies. She was assisted with some of this by Laura Bier-Nielsen, a keen nineteen-year-old volunteer, who delayed going to university to throw herself into the campaign.

I want to thank our backroom team in Bristol: Pierre Shepherd, Tom Brooke, Tom Price, Tony Strickland and the rest of the research and social media staff, who helped us to grow what became the biggest online campaign of the referendum. Holly Gardner managed thousands of dedicated volunteers from Lands End to the north of Scotland. Pam Watts and the staff in our hard-pressed call centre made an invaluable contribution, particularly Rudolph, our Slovakian media darling.

Also due a special mention in Bristol are Peter Hargreaves, who really dug deep for Brexit, and his son Robert, who joined our team in Bristol towards the end and got stuck in at the coalface. Beyond our own immediate team there was also Ewen Stewart, our economic adviser, and Stuart Coster, who helped Brian organise our special ops around Westminster. Alex Story and Alex Deane thank you for your intelligence and humour.

Simon Heffer was a particular source of inspiration, always generous when sharing the benefits of his knowledge and experience with us. Raheem Kassam from Breitbart also deserves thanks for his support, strategic advice and encouragement. Chris Bruni-Lowe, Gawain Towler, Michael Heaver, John Gill, Joe Jenkins and especially Dan Jukes, and the rest of the UKIP boys and girls, were close collaborators and always happy to co-operate. To Robin Birley, owner of 5 Hertford Street and a generous supporter of the cause, thank you for your hospitality throughout and after the campaign.

I could not have written this without the brilliant Isabel Oakeshott who lived in my head for ten weeks I fear she will never be the same again. She has shared a big part of our adventure and I cant thank her and her editorial team enough.

Finally, thanks to all the voters who passionately supported the Leave.EU campaign and made 23 June our Independence Day.

I have co-authored several high-profile books, all of which have been challenging in their own way. None quite prepared me for this project.

Arrons diary was researched and written in ten weeks, a near-impossible timeframe. I was only able to meet the deadline by drafting in several researchers who helped trawl through thousands of emails and text messages sent and received by Arron during the campaign, as well as Twitter accounts, media reports and Leave.EUs press releases.

Special thanks to Louis Trupia, a brilliant and endlessly enthusiastic Oxford undergraduate drafted in at three days notice in the middle of his summer holiday. He provided invaluable research. Thanks also to reporter Nick Mutch and investigative journalist Margaret Crick. There were many sleepless nights but, thanks to this team, somehow we all got the job done.

Isabel Oakeshott