The De Bernières were very military. I broke the military tradition but I was terribly proud of my father being a soldier.

No man is a man until he has been a soldier.

So the news that divorced fathers are to be denied a legal right to a relationship with their children, in the long overdue review of family law published this week, fills me with horror and despair.

Remember that fear causes to happen the very things it fears. That's why fear should be unknown to us.

We have roots that grow towards each other underground. And when all the pretty blossom has fallen from our branches we find that we are one tree and not two.

The human heart likes a little disorder in its geometry.

Man is a bird without wings and a bird is a man without sorrow.