The human heart likes a little disorder in its geometry.

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.

It's stupid to claim that one human being is special, or picked out by God, when in fact there are hundreds of millions of human beings in the world, and God knows how many millions of people long dead who have been lost to history, all of whom were probably special to someone.

God is an oppressor, He is incapable of human sympathy; behind a smiling face He hides an evil heart.

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.

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

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