We say very little, for we do not need to. We are silent together, each in her own world, knowing the other is just at her back.

I read a lot of fantasy. I adored 'Anne of Green Gables'. But my favourite books as a child were probably Laura Ingalls Wilder's 'Little House' series, about a pioneer family in the mid-19th-century American west. I often thought of them as I was writing 'The Last Runaway'.

Younger women tend to be busier, wearing more layers and more make-up. I don't know if it's because older women are more confident, or just that we don't care any more. But that pared-down approach is the same with the sentences I write; I take out adjectives and adverbs and keep the description to a minimum.

You know I don’t listen to market gossip,” she began, “but it is hard not to hear it when my daughter’s name is mentioned.

I find that when I come out of the library I'm in what I call the library bliss of being totally taken away from the distractions of life.

It was not a house where secrets could be kept easily.

I wanted to wear the mantle and the pearls. I wanted to know the man who painted her like that.