Where I live, there is a group of fans who take me out to tea every year to pick my brains about what's coming up.

You won't have a story unless you have conflict, which means if there's no conflict in a situation, people look for a way to make some.

The only thing I knew about novels from a technical point of view was that they should have conflict.

Conflict and character are the heart of good fiction, and good mystery has both of those in spades.

I don't do much cooking because it's impossible when you travel so much. You go grocery shopping, buy everything, and then get a call to fly out for two weeks. By the time you're back, all the food is rotten.

Greater personal choice, individually tailored services, stronger local accountability, greater efficiency - these are all central to the new direction of travel we have set for our public services.

Love of country, subordination of personal interests to the common good, concern and care for the helpless and the impoverished - these are among the lost and faded values that we seek to recover and revitalize as we commence our journey towards a better Philippines.

I spent many hours slaving away, day and night, bleary eyed, on multi-million pound takeovers, mergers and acquisitions, and the rest. It could sound glamorous (especially when it involved overseas travel) but often it wasn't partly because, as a lawyer, you were not the one calling the shots.