No, what Great Aunt Winifred was suffering from was the persecution every happily single woman suffers: the predictable social condemnation of her independence and childlessness. Dorothy reminded herself of what she'd learned during a university course on feminist history (with a strong Marxist slant): spinsters are a threat to patriarchy.

Starting a new novel is a little like starting a new relationship - you have to be prepared to commit for at least three years and put up with the domestic tedium as well as the emotional highs!

This may be the very nature of love, a passion as fickle as the sea, full of certainty when the object of desire is absent, yet dubious when confronted again with the lover's presence.

Danger is an aphrodisiac.

Death strips all men of dignity.

Love wasn't a piece of music you could play over and over again with different interpretations. It actually needed to be improvised as you went along.

The worst enemy is one whose doctrines are founded in hate and are thus beyond debate.