Living as we do in an age of noise and bluster, success is now measured accordingly. We must all be seen, and heard, and on the air.

Life was a series of greetings and farewells, one was always saying good-bye to something, to someone.

And I don't like books which are full of name dropping.

What about the hero of The House on the Strand? What did it mean when he dropped the telephone at the end of the book? I don't really know, but I rather think he was going to be paralysed for life. Don't you?

Writing every book is like a purge; at the end of it one is empty ... like a dry shell on the beach, waiting for the tide to come in again.

Come and see us if you feel like it,' she said. 'I always expect people to ask themselves. Life is too short to send out invitations.

The point is, life has to be endured, and lived. But how to live it is the problem.