The duty of a historian is simply to understand and then convey that understanding, no more than that.

I just love the days when you come out of the archives with half a dozen excellent descriptions or poignant accounts of personal experiences.

I feel slightly uneasy at the way historians are consulted as if history is going to repeat itself. It never does.

It takes me three or four years to research and write each book and the individual stories stay with you for a long time afterwards.

The great help of being in the Army is to understand why are the armies clever in what they describe as emotional intelligence, making soldiers come to terms with the death of comrades by certain rituals.

I can't envisage stopping writing.

It was only after five years in the army, when I was having to do a very boring job in a very boring place, that I thought: 'Why not try writing a novel?' partly out of youthful arrogance and partly because there had been a long line of writers in my mother's family.