As the Dauphine stepped out of her carriage on to the ceremonial carpet that had been laid down, it was the Duc de Choiseul who was given the privilege of the first salute. Presented with the Duc by Prince Starhemberg, Marie Antoinette exclaimed: 'I shall never forget that you are responsible for my happiness!

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

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.

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.

I have no plans for a future Jemima Shore mystery, but would write one tomorrow if a good idea came to me.

Ninety-seven is my lucky number.