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.

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 just write the sort of book that I would enjoy reading myself, a book that is both scholarly and recreates the experience of people at that time.

The blurring of fact and fiction has great commercial potential, which is bound to be corrupting in historical terms.

I believe passionately in preemptive pessimism, especially before a book comes out. I expect the worst both from reviewers and sales, and then, with any luck, I may be proved wrong.

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

If you smash a city when you're trying to capture it, you actually end up providing the perfect terrain for the defenders while blocking the access for your own armoured vehicles.