As George Orwell wisely observed a generation later, the only way swiftly to end a war is to lose it.

The only redemptive feature of war is the brotherhood which it forges.

You cannot write down how people are good; you just know it, and cannot get away from it.

It's miraculous how much easier the computer has made my sort of work.

When I am fishing, I think quite a lot about the fish, but I also think about the book I'm writing.

Lots of us when we're children believe 'oh well, if the world knew us as we really are, they'd know what wonderful, clever, brilliant, charming people we really are.'

There was no doubt that in the early and mid-eighties that many of us in broadsheet newspapers felt that we still had a responsibility to try to protect the Royal Family or if you like protect the Monarchy from the assaults of the media.