Never drink black coffee at lunch; it will keep you awake all afternoon.

I wrote my earliest piece for The Sunday Times about being a young wife.

Although it is the biggest time-waster in office life, you must never underrate the importance of the memo. You will be judged by the volume of your paper work.

hurting other people is not excusable because you've been hurt yourself.

Never drink black coffee at lunch; it will keep you awake all afternoon.

it's a good idea to wait a few months before joining anything when you arrive at a village. A bookseller friend who retired to nearby Oxfordshire, and was worried he might be bored, got himself on to every village committee in the first six months, and spent the next ten years extricating himself.

I was so flattered that someone wanted me to write a book, I said I would. It was published in 1969.