I met Richard Burton, an RAF cadet on a two-term course. I would have flirted more enthusiastically if it had not been for the horrid boils on the back of his neck.

I am not a victim. I am an angry survivor.

A writer's work may be a coded autobiography, but only a very close friend could decipher it.

I was born in a small suburb of Ilford in a rather nasty housing estate that my mother despised. She had grown up in the country, so when the war came and I was evacuated to Wales she thought I was much better off there.

There are many times when I think I would have rather died with my husband. It would have been pleasanter, simpler. But it would have been worse for the children and the family in general.

I've never found it made the slightest difference being a woman - though there is a sort of feeling that as you get older you're not so interesting.

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.