A problem with a piece of writing often clarifies itself if you go for a long walk.

We are creatures of story.

The human longing for story is so powerful, so primitive, that it seems like something not learned, but locked into our genes.

I hope that readers will tear through my books because they can't stop themselves - and then, maybe, read them again and find new things there.

However, the difficulties and pleasures of the writing itself are similar for a novel with a historical setting and a novel with a contemporary setting, as far as I'm concerned.

Reread, rewrite, reread, rewrite. If it still doesn't work, throw it away. It's a nice feeling, and you don't want to be cluttered with the corpses of poems and stories which have everything in them except the life they need.

If we understand the past, we are more likely to recognise what is happening around us.