Most of my work consisted of crossing out. Crossing out was the secret of all good writing.

There's something rather wonderful about the fact that Oxford is a very small city that contains most of the cultural and metropolitan facilities you could want, in terms of bookshops, theatre, cinema, conversation. But it's near enough to London to get here in an hour, and it's near enough to huge open spaces without which I would go insane.

Most of my work consisted of crossing out. Crossing out was the secret of all good writing.

But I said that you could still want something that is very unlikely to happen.

..and only sticks and stones can break my bones.

I've worked in television long enough to know that when you stop enjoying that type of thing you go home and do something else.

Mother used to say it meant Christopher was a nice name because it was a story about being kind and helpful, but I do not want my name to mean a story about being kind and helpful. I want my name to mean me.