[Margaret] Thatcher could fake her class background, but she couldn't fake the quality of her mind.

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.

[Margaret Thatcher] admitted to being the daughter of her father but not the daughter of her mother!

I think the monarchy today is. . . mildly interesting and largely harmless. I can't find I can get very heated about it. In the next couple of generations, it is bound to go.

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

In my 20s I was in constant pain from undiagnosed endometriosis. With no prospect of a cure, I decided I needed a career - writing - that could accommodate being ill.

Much historical fiction that centers on real people has always been deficient in information, lacking in craft and empty in affect.