Researching books gets you into nothing but trouble.

History at its best is a gritty, dirty business.

Scotland just isn't terribly Tory.

Very often the characters people respond to best have little parts of reality they can relate to.

To me, reading through old letters and journals is like treasure hunting. Somewhere in those faded, handwritten lines there is a story that has been packed away in a dusty old box for years.

Historical fiction of course is particularly research-heavy. The details of everyday life are there to trip you up. Things that we take for granted, indeed, hardly think about, can lead to tremendous mistakes.

I had never really understood what an adventure life could be, if you followed your heart and did what you really wanted to do, which is what we must all do in the end.