It was an odd thing to do, to stand in a street in the hope of seeing someone who hardly knew him, but he did not want to move.

But desperate people find courage.

I like to create imaginary characters and events around a real historical situation. I want readers to feel: OK, this probably didn't happen, but it might have.

But the lesson of Abraham's story is that God demands the best we have to offer, that which is most precious to us.

It was an odd relationship, but then she was an extraordinary woman: a prioress who doubted much of what the church taught; an acclaimed healer who rejected medicine as practised by physicians; and a nun who made enthusiastic love to her man whenever she could get away with it. If I wanted a normal relationship, Merthin told himself, I should have picked a normal girl.

I imagined it. I wrote it. But I guess I never thought I'd see it.

Trusting someone was like holding a little water in your cupped hands - it was so easy to spill the water, and you could never get it back.