For a novelist, the gaps in a story are as intriguing as material that still exists.

Writers of novels live in a strange world where what's made up is as important as what's real.

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

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.

It is through our extended family that we first learn to compromise and come to an understanding that even if we don't always agree about things we can still love and look out for each other.

I'm not sure how much easier it is for a mother to balance her life now - have we simply swapped one set of restrictions for another?

Scotland consistently produces world-class writers.