We all lie to each other, present some sort of front.

It seemed sensible to move to a market town where I could walk everywhere.

In my eighties, my best friends are in their fifties, and I have many friends at university. It keeps one young, and up with the vocabulary. That's terribly important, especially for a writer.

Of course risk-taking does not always pay off, but it's a lot of fun!

That image of the countryside being a threatening place still exists. People continue to resist the challenge of learning about aspects of life they don't understand.

They may turn out to be a great disappointment, or perhaps they may be full of enchanting surprises.

I have deliberately left Sylvester and Julia's appearances to the reader's imagination.