Take care with your words, Jacquetta, especially in cursing. Only say the things you mean, make sure you lay your curse on the right man. For be very sure that when you put such words out in the world they can overshoot-like an arrow, a curse can go beyond your target and harm another. A wise woman curses very sparingly.

I can't sleep, I can't eat, I can't do anything but think about him. At night I dream of him, all day I wait to see him, and when I do see him my heart turns over and I think I will faint with desire.

But young hearts mend easily, and hearts that own half of England have something better to do than to beat faster for love.

The truth is the last thing that matters,' she said. 'And you can believe one thing of the truth and me: I keep it well hidden, inside my heart.

Although some people think I am a romantic novelist I have always thought of myself as a rather gritty radical historian.

Anyone can attract a man. The trick is to keep him.

Before anything else I was a woman who was capable of passion and who had a great need and a great desire for love.