Sometimes I create a character from a scrap – a mere mention that has been left behind.

Mirabelle sat down, dropping into the cushions like a ball being caught in a large leather glove.

Books exist for me not as physical entities with pages and binding, but in the province of my mind.

Digital distribution has widened the reading world.

She wishes her grandmother had not been so protective, and that she understood better what passes between a man and woman. As it is, she simply enjoys the feelings and wonders if they are what...

When you think about the period in which Agatha Christie’s crime novels were written, they are actually quite edgy for the time.

I think that everyone has something that they will kill for.

Writers are, as a profession, nothing if not eccentric.

I’ve always had a keen sense of history. My father was an antiques dealer and he used to bring home boxes full of treasures, and each item always had a tale attached.

The law don’t like jazz clubs. No one wants anything to do with that kind of trouble.

Small details are a vital part of allowing a reader to make an imaginative connection with long dead historical figures.