Writers are, as a profession, nothing if not eccentric.
We are in the middle of the biggest revolution in reading and writing since the advent of the Gutenberg press.
I can't bear literary snobbery.
When the first book out my sister-in-law read it and we were chatting at 5 o'clock in the afternoon and she said, "Oh my God, chapter six, sex and a murder," and her five year old wandered into the ki...
We are living in glorious days where each readers' voice can be heard.
I hope that, whatever happens within the publishing industry, because of the increased control writers have of their own careers, better sales information and the advent of the internet, that ultimate...
Change occurs slowly. Very often a legal change might take place but the cultural shift required to really accept its spirit lingers in the wings for decades.
The library is a symbol of freedom.
One of Scotland's most important cultural exports - stories.
Grabbing readers by the imagination is a writer's job.
I believe the era of the militant lady is back.
I am a storyteller, not a historian, and it's my ambition to create something compelling - something unputdownable and riveting - that chimes with the real history but is, in fact, fiction.
For a writer it's a genuinely interesting and hopefully profitable era that makes a variety of books available to a variety of readers, extending both what's available and who gets to read it.
He didn’t look as if he’d been through a whirlwind exactly but he’d certainly endured a stiff breeze.
History is full of blank spaces, but good stories, invariably, are not.
On of the prerequisites for my mobile phone is that I have to be able to fling it at a wall if I lose my temper.
As a novelist it is my job to tell stories that inspire and entertain but I am increasingly mindful that many of these historical tales (which of themselves are fascinating) relate directly to our iss...
We have more choice than ever before about where and how we buy and read books.
I know a lot of writers, and everyone works differently, but this is something that we truly have in common across all genres - the fiction has to be real inside your head.
As it stands there is a very strong argument that as the book trade becomes increasingly corporate it's our literary heritage that is at risk - a vital part of our culture.