It is easier for a rich person to act on their principles than it is for someone with fewer choices (which is why it is all the more disappointing when a wealthy person plays to the crowd).

This is the forked tongue of grief again. It whispers in one ear: return to what you once loved best, and in the other ear it whispers, move on.

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

Something I am now convinced of, after researching Everyone Brave, is that none of us is born courageous in all respects.

Would we be the heroes or the cowards of the piece? Would we follow orders or stick to our principles, if those two things ever conflicted? Would we be the brave ones who still found the capacity for love - and for laughter - even while we were terrified?

Looking after a very sick child was the Olympics of parenting.

Studying psychology is fun because you're always looking for the same things I think a writer should be looking for, which is the story behind the story.