She doesn't believe in dogs," Bridget said. "Dogs are hardly an article of faith," Sylvie said.

Sometimes it was harder to change the past than it was the future.

I don't have goals when writing books, apart from getting to the end. I have rather vague ideas about how I want things to feel, I'm big on ambience. I have a title, a beginning and a probable ending and go from there.

She should have done science, not spent all her time with her head in novels. Novels gave you a completely false idea about life, they told lies and they implied there were endings when in reality there were no endings, everything just went on and on and on.

Alternate history fascinates me, as it fascinates all novelists, because 'What if?' is the big thing.

Ethics are not necessarily to do with being law-abiding. I am very interested in the moral path, doing the right thing.

Sylvia loved secrets and even if she didn't have any secrets she made sure that you thought she did. Amelia had no secrets, Amelia knew nothing. When she grew up she planned to know everything and to keep it all a secret.