When men die, they die in fear", he said. "They take everything they need from you, and as a doctor it is your job to give it, to comfort them, to hold their hand. But children die how they have been living - in hope. They don't know what's happening, so they expect nothing, they don't ask you to hold their hand - but you end up needing them to hold yours. With children, you're on your own. Do you understand?

The best fiction stays with you and changes you.

In the mess of moving from place to place, I skipped two grades in the space of one year.

My grandfather and I were very close.

For me it was a lot harder to come to terms with the death of my grandfather than it was to come to terms with what's happened to the former Yugoslavia.

In my earliest memory, my grandfather is bald as a stone and he takes me to see the tigers.

I grew up in Cyprus and Egypt, these fantastic places I remember fondly.