Writers never feel comfortable having labels attached to them, however accurate they are.

Thatcherism has become bigger than she ever was.

The biggest markets for my books outside the UK are France and Italy, and those are the two countries where I also have the closest personal relationships with my translators - I don't know whether that's a coincidence, or if there's something to be learned from it.

But I have always - ever since The Accidental Woman - written novels about individuals attempting to make choices in the context of situations over which they have no control.

The writer I feel the most affinity with - you said you felt my books are 19th century novels, I think they're 18th century novels - is Fielding, Henry Fielding, he's the guy who does it for me.

But you can try to read books at the wrong time or for the wrong reasons.

Objectivity is just male subjectivity.