History - the non-fiction version - must inform the fiction to make it truthful; too much of it and your genres are colliding.

History - the non-fiction version - must inform the fiction to make it truthful; too much of it and your genres are colliding.

Thatcher had broken the miners' union, all but crushed the Labour Party, dramatically cut back the welfare state, even flirted with a poll tax. In the circles I ran in, Reagan was mocked as a childish dolt. Thatcher was despised.

Novelists may be able to seek advice from readers and editors, but in the end, it is up to them to get the book right.

I have prided myself with striving for objectivity, something many literary-minded critics dismiss as impossible. But in Washington, reporters are practically the only people who actually spend time talking to Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, and I find the longer I report in Washington, the mushier and less conclusive my own views are. I like it that way.

I hope I will get to novelize my present circumstances at some point. I have some great stories to tell.

For all the worship that Ronald Reagan elicits in conservative circles in the United States, I would venture that Thatcher did far more to reshape British society than Reagan did here.