Periodically I just notch up. And everyone among my colleagues thinks that Perfidia - in its accessibility, its big throbbing heart - will be the biggest notch up yet. We'll see what happens. It's on my ass.

I have insane curiosity as to what happened in all these events. I will never know. I'm not a researcher. I don't possess that kind of mind. I have a researcher who compiles the fact sheets and chronologies that allow me to write these big books of mine.

I'm getting a wider circle of fans now. More women, more middle class people.

Other people, some other writers, will win certain accolades or sell in far greater numbers than me - and I'm a legitimate best-selling author - but I live and die for the work. That's thrilling to me. It's thrilling that I do for others what certain writers did for me when I was a kid.

We do. Or re-create the ones we have, and project. My whole life is projection.

And you love to read, you love to escape, right?

All I want to do is make serious movies that explore social issues and turn a profit, and slip the schnitzel to Jane DePugh.