Ten thousand pounds is the legal value of a negligently taken life, of a child or a parent. A cold and somewhat mean-spirited calculation: you would do better if you slipped on a paving-stone and broke a front tooth.

Ten thousand pounds is the legal value of a negligently taken life, of a child or a parent. A cold and somewhat mean-spirited calculation: you would do better if you slipped on a paving-stone and broke a front tooth.

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.

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.

All writers are liars. They twist events to suit themselves. They make use of their own tragedies to make a better story... They are terrible people.

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

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