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

If I write that it was a cold day, you can be sure I know it was a cold day because Pepys told us.

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.

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

I can't read historical fiction because I find the real thing so much more interesting.

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

That is my major concern: writers who are in prison for writing.