I am not someone who believes I am going to find a historical scoop.

When my first novel was published, I went in great excitement round bookshops in central London to see if they had stocked it.

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.

The British bombing of Caen beginning on D-Day in particular was stupid, counter-productive and above all very close to a war crime.

When I was a child I had something called Perthes' Disease which meant I was on crutches, so I was bullied at school and all that sort of stuff.

I can't envisage stopping writing.

I think it's outrageous if a historian has a 'leading thought' because it means they will select their material according to their thesis