[My maternal grandmother ] was a teacher in London and elsewhere during the war, although the children she taught were not the "lost children" who feature in the novel - those come from my research.

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.

At some point you just have to turn around and face your life head on.

I do think it is harder to acknowledge our strengths, or to forgive ourselves and each other for our shortcomings, when there has not been a result we can all agree on.

In my world death will come chasing. In your world it will start whispering in your ear to destroy yourself. I know this because it started whispering to me when I was in the detention center.

And thus love makes fools of us all.

Nobody has the time to sit down and explain the first world from first principles.