Of course there's no such thing as a totally objective person, except Almighty God, if she exists.

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.

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

Normally I make myself swim, do exercises. For zest I like going to the cinema.

The concentration in my book on Marie Antoinette's childhood and on her family influences. It is surprising how some books actually start with her arrival in France!

It can be a long gap between the emergence of fully researched historical biographies.

Lives in previous centuries for women are largely a matter of class. It would have been fun to have been a rich, privileged woman in the 18th century, but no fun at all to be her maid.