I wanted to look at the differences between how we fought then and how we fight now, because the current lack of closure generates a state of psychological unease that is interesting to acknowledge and examine.

There's what people say, and there's what people mean, and I like to explore the difference between the two.

I'm always determined that as a novelist I'm going to go out there and research my characters very thoroughly before I start writing.

Andrew had a gift for deepening the incision he began.

The Daily Mail can't say 'asylum-seeker' without saying 'foreign criminal' in the same sentence. I'm sure it's practically editorial policy.

My paternal grandmother drove ambulances during the regional Blitz, in Birmingham.

Our own personal brand of courage - in relationships, in conflict, in our principles ­ - is as unique as our fingerprints.