I am in the Pitte, but I have gone so deep that I can see the brightness of the Starres at Noon.

London has always provided the landscape for my imagination. It becomes a character - a living being - within each of my books.

The best years are when you know what you're doing.

A triptych in which the presiding deities are Mother, England and Me.

I saw a ghost once, about 20 years ago. It took the form of someone coming out of a sleeping body and sitting at the foot of the bed.

To be a writer was always my greatest aim. I remember writing a play about Guy Fawkes when I was 10. I suppose it's significant, at least to me, that my first work should be about a historical figure.

The ordinary routines of life are never chronicled by the historian, but they make up almost the whole of experience.