I've always been interested in foreign relations. It's my belief that study of history should be our preparation for understanding the present rather than an escape from it.

These atheist cultures were certainly diligent in preserving the relics of their saints.

I think it's important to recognise that 'The Da Vinci Code' opened up a vast new audience for a general readership interested in historical detective stories and research into history.

As a historian, I have learned that, in fact, not everyone who reaches back into history can survive it. And it is not only reaching back that endangers us; sometimes history itself reaches inexorably forward for us with its shadowy claws.

No book that is written for an external purpose is going to be a passionately felt book for the writer or the reader. I don't see the point in doing that.

And how could anyone consent to give up the smell of open books, old or new?

I love to cook and I've cooked a lot of Bulgarian food over the years.