You think you're writing one historical novel and it turns into three, and I'm quite used to a short story turning into a novel - that's happened through my whole career.

The worship of Thomas More goes beyond Catholics.

When you become published and become a reviewer, piles of books come along and you are pushed by fashion and what you are commissioned to do.

I am usually protective of my work, not showing it to anyone until it has been redrafted and polished.

I believe this was [Margaret Thatcher] estimate of the voter: "These people are so stupid that they will vote for me because they think I know how to run the household."

I think psychologically [Margaret Thatcher] is really worth studying. I am reading Charles Moore's biography of her, and he has gotten us right there with a woman who lived the unexamined life, and lived it deliberately, and who has contempt for history, even her own.

My concern is less the monarchy as such than the attempt of a fading colonial power to hang onto grandeur.