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.

I've always been fascinated by the operation of memory - the way in which it is not linear but fragmented, and its ambivalence.

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

There's a fearful term that's in fashion at the moment - closure. People apparently believe it is desirable and attainable.

All history, of course, is the history of wars.

Born in Jerusalem, Wadie Said went from being a dragoman to a salesman in the United States and thence to a hugely successful businessman in Egypt.

I rather like getting away from fiction.