A writer is like a stick of rock - the words go right through.
Being able to read well in public and talk about your work in an engaging fashion is part of most writers' job specification.
Our business is communication oftentimes through the medium of stories but our capacity has a far greater scope - to entertain certainly, but also to stimulate debate, to mark up changes and differenc...
It's entirely possible to base an entire book on a long-forgotten letter.
When you're depressed you retreat and you go into a smaller world. This is why Brighton worked well for the story, because it's a smaller world than London.
Writers are a product of where we come from but by looking at alternatives to the culture in which we live, we can find ways to change and hopefully improve it.
I was asked the other day in which era I would choose to live. As a historical novelist, it comes up sometimes. As a woman I'd have to say I'd like to live in the future - I want to see where these ce...
If you've been hurt and you've grieved and you've been through the mill, it takes a long time to get over it.
Writing the same kind of material is no guarantee you'll be working from the same ethos so that writers from different fields are just as likely to have an understanding of each other's work as someon...
Crime writers, I've noticed, can be jumpy. They live in a world where there are murderers on the loose and they haven't been caught yet!
I believe that being able to communicate directly with readers is a boon. I certainly enjoy it as much as they do.
The hard fact is that writing is available to readers because of market factors as much as particular writing talent.
I have an ambivalent relationship with Margaret Thatcher. She came to power in May 1979 - a month before my 11th birthday. I was far too young to have developed a great deal of political awareness. I...
My fascination with history is as much about the present as it is about the past.
No one's book is perfect.
I'm in my 40s and I'm constantly surprised by how much my childhood still plays a part in my life.
There are as many different kinds of books as there are writers - as many different responses as there are readers.
I love stories that suck you in, that you can't stop reading because you are quite simply there.
Living in Edinburgh, I consider myself particularly lucky - we have the biggest book festival in the world, a plethora of fascinating libraries and museums, and some of the greatest architecture in Eu...
An important part of deciding where we want to go, as a society and culture, is knowing where we have come from, and indeed, how far we have come.
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