I didn't want it to be a book that made pronouncements.

Equally, we require a collective past - hence the endless reinterpretations of history, frequently to suit the perceptions of the present.

Language tethers us to the world; without it we spin like atoms.

It seems to me that anyone whose library consists of a Kindle lying on a table is some sort of bloodless nerd.

I'm writing another novel and I know what I'm going to do after, which may be something more like this again, maybe some strange mixture of fiction and non-fiction.

In old age, you realise that while you're divided from your youth by decades, you can close your eyes and summon it at will. As a writer it puts one at a distinct advantage.

I have had to empty two family homes during the last few years - first, the house that had been my grandmothers since 1923, and then my own country home, which we had lived in for over twenty years.