Claire Tomalin

I have been left-wing always, from childhood. ”

It's a difficult thing to lose a child, a grown-up child. ”

I was very priggish as a child. I saved up for a book on medieval English nunneries, for which I was despised by my friends. ”

Biographers use historians more than historians use biographers, although there can be two-way traffic - e.g., the ever-growing production of biographies of women is helping to change the general picture of the past presented by historians. ”

Biographies are, in their nature, far more difficult to make into films than novels, because novels come with plots constructed and dialogue written, whereas I don't invent dialogue for my subjects or plot their lives for them. ”

Dickens is a lover of human beings; a relisher of human beings. ”

Why do we read biography? Why do we choose to write it? Because we are human beings, programmed to be curious about other human beings, and to experience something of their lives. This has always been so - look at the Bible, crammed with biographies, very popular reading. ”

By the time I went up to Cambridge, I was extremely quiet and well behaved, although I now meet people who remember me as not like that at all. ”

Historians will handle a much wider range of sources than a biographer and will be covering a broader spectrum of events, time, peoples. ”

Words and Music' on Radio 3 is always a treat. Actors read passages of poetry and prose interspersed with music, and nobody tells you what it is. Later you can look it up online, but at the time you can't cheat. ”