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

I am not a historian. I don't see what I do as being a rival to biography.

I think it is going to take another fifty years for the report to be in. If I were to give a preliminary report, I would say that [Margaret Thatcher] wrecked this country.

I will get into trouble, I am sure, because since my Kate Middleton speech and before, certain papers were after me. I am not saying, however, that it would have been moral or right to assassinate Mrs. [Margaret] Thatcher, but I know it will be read that way. I know it will cause a problem.

[T]he heart is like any other organ, you can weigh it on a scale.

My first book was a historical novel. I started writing in 1974. In those days, historical novels meant ladies with swelling bosoms on the cover. Basically, it meant historical romance. It was not respectable as a genre.

Insights don't usually arrive at my desk, but go into notebooks when I'm on the move. Or half-asleep.