If you don't go to a dance you can never be rejected but you'll never get to dance either.

An English journalist called Michael Viney told me when I was 25, that I would write well if I cared a lot what I was writing about. That worked. I went home that day and wrote about parents not understanding their children as well as we teachers did, and it was published the very next week.

I try to make my characters kind of ordinary, somebody that anybody could be. Because we've all had loves, perhaps love and loss, people can relate to my characters.

I think I'm brave because I've made decisions based - I hope not entirely selfishly - on what I think is right for me to do next.

I discovered that men were just like everyone else, really. They liked you if you were good-tempered and easy to talk to. And being a big girl meant other females trusted you more and confided in you.

In my stories, whenever there's somebody wonderful and charming and bright and intelligent, that's me!

I'm an escapist kind of writer.