For me books have always been an incredibly solid part of my life, both as escapism and simply as resource.

If something is worth doing you may as well go heart and soul and boot leather.

I'm very close to my parents. I admire them and respect them enormously. But my childhood unfortunately coincided with the end of their marriage. They are two people who should never, ever have got married.

Death had ruled my life till I met Lady Dance. Her dance had set me free.

I'd love to see a new form of social security ... everyone taught how to grow their own; fruit and nut trees planted along every street, parks planted out to edibles, every high rise with a roof garden, every school with at least one fruit tree for every kid enrolled.

I don't read like other people do - back and forth, across the page. I tend to scan a page at a time.

There is still in many schools complete misapprehension that children with reading difficulties are stupid. It is so easy to teach a child that they're dumb. There needs to be a recognition that you need different ways to teach children who have got reading problems.