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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.