...being written by someone who might not quite understand the subconscious nuance of the character leaves us in varying degrees of flatness.

Pretend to be mad and talk a lot. Then — and this is the important bit — do nothing at all until you absolutely have to and then make sure everyone dies.

Governments and fashions come and go but Jane Eyre is for all time.

I've managed to bring the backlog down to a mere sixty-eight years," she announced with some small sense of achievement. "I hope to be able to start marking the papers of pupils who are still alive by the end of the decade.

There is a certain degree of steampunkishness that creeps into my books.

I have a very varied taste in music. Everything from rap to classical to Latino to Rat Pack to jazz.

The cucumber and the tomato are both fruit; the avocado is a nut. To assist with the dietary requirements of vegetarians, on the first Tuesday of the month a chicken is officially a vegetable.