Plenty of friendships are sustainable through dinners and lunches, but will not stand a week away. So be careful with whom you go on holiday.

Sometimes it is quite surprising, the emotional intensity of it. I was in NY one day, in Barnes and Noble, and I could see this woman following me around and after a bit I stopped and said 'Hello' and she just looked at me and said: “PLEASE LET EDITH BE HAPPY!”

I always loved movies and the cinema; we always used to go to see films as a family.

If there's one thing I don't look for in a maid, it's discretion. Except with my own secrets, of course.

There are many nations that have perfected a particular room. You know, you have the French drawing-room, the Austrian ball room, the German dining room, and I think the library is a room the English get right.

I can be as contrary as I choose.

I'm seen as a chronicler of the class system, which I don't think is unfair.