My advantage as a woman and a human being has been in having a mother who believed strongly in women's education. She was an early undergraduate at Oxford, and her own mother was a doctor.

I think crime writing is my link with trying to preserve a sort of order.

I hate the only one of my book jackets when I was made up professionally, my hair made into a smooth bell.

The clue to book jacket photography is to look friendly and approachable, but not too glamorous.

I am re-reading Henry James as a change from history. I began with Daisy Miller, and I've just finished Washington Square. What a brilliant, painful book.

I have seen all, I have heard all, I have forgotten all. marie antoinette

King Charles II liked women's company and well as making love to them.