I'm glad I was never an heiress.

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

Ninety-seven is my lucky number.

I think there's a tremendous split between people who've been through a war and people who haven't.

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

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

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!