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 grew up on a suburban street with lace curtains and dull neighbours, so I made up stories to tell my friend, in which they became serial killers and burglars. She told her mother, who then told mine.

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.

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

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.

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

I dislike the word 'victim.' I dislike being told that I 'lost' my husband - as if I had idly abandoned you by the side of the railway track like an unwanted pair of old shoes.