Children often have a much stronger concept of morality than adults.

I like writing for children. It seems to me that most people underestimate their understanding and the strength of their feelings and in my books for them I try to put this right.

Margaret Thatcher was in my year, and our first-year college photograph shows us standing side by side in the back row. We were both grammar school girls on state scholarships.

One good reason for writing novels based on your life is that you have something to read in old age when you've forgotten what happened.

Life isn't so complicated for children. They have more time to think about the really important things. That's why I occasionally moralise in my children's books in a way I wouldn't dare when writing for adults.

People's lives are in the care of the railways when they get on a train. The railways should remember that.

People who don't read seem to me mysterious. I don't know how they think or learn about other people. Novels are a very important part of our education.