I like stirring the pot - I think it's part of my duty, to shake people up a bit - make them look at things in a different way.

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.

I like stirring the pot - I think it's part of my duty, to shake people up a bit - make them look at things in a different way.

I wanted to be a war reporter - scrabbling around, exposing things. I didn't want to go to university, I wanted to get a job, but Auntie Beryl said I should go to Oxford.

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.

I would hate to live in the country, unless I was living on a farm.

All writers are thieves; theft is a necessary tool of the trade.