Children Often Have A Much Stronger Concept

One Good Reason For Writing Novels Based On Your Life Is That You Have Something To Read In Old Age When You've Forgotten What Happened.

I Wanted To Be A War Reporter - Scrabbling Around, Exposing Things. I Didn't Want To Go To University, I Wanted To Get A Job, But Auntie Beryl Said I Should Go To Oxford.

I Was Born In A Small Suburb Of Ilford In A Rather Nasty Housing Estate That My Mother Despised. She Had Grown Up In The Country, So When The War Came And I Was Evacuated To Wales She Thought I Was Much Better Off There.

I Dislike The Word 'victim.' I Dislike Being Told That I 'lost' My Husband - As If I Had Idly Abandoned You By The Side Of The Railway Track Like An Unwanted Pair Of Old Shoes.

Life Isn't So Complicated For Children. They Have More Time To Think About The Really Important Things. That's Why I Occasionally Moralise In My Children's Books In A Way I Wouldn't Dare When Writing For Adults.