We, while noting many things amiss about Victorian society, more often sense them judging us.

Everyone writes in Tolstoy's shadow, whether one feels oneself to be Tolstoyan or not.

If you know somebody is going to be awfully annoyed by something you write, that's obviously very satisfying, and if they howl with rage or cry, that's honey.

As Hitler himself later enunciated, it matters not how idiotic the creed, what matters is the firmness with which it is enunciated.

I should prefer to have a politician who regularly went to a massage parlour than one who promised a laptop computer for every teacher.

I very much dislike the intolerance and moralism of many Christians, and feel more sympathy with Honest Doubters than with them.

My kind publishers, Toby Mundy and Margaret Stead of Atlantic Books, have commissioned me to write the life of Queen Victoria.