I hate the idea of sequels. I think you should be able to do it in one book.

Only a great genius like the Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell can be mother, wife and novelist without solitude. I couldn't write until my youngest child went to school, and then I began - the first morning - and I've never stopped.

If I've got one thing that I really believe about fiction and life, it's that there are no minor characters.

English country life is more like Chekhov than 'The Archers' or Thomas Hardy or even the Updike ethic with which it is sometimes compared.

One of the reasons we all still read Jane Austen is because her books are about universal things which still matter today - love, money, family. They haven't gone out of fashion, so it's not throwing the baby out with the bathwater to rework her in a contemporary style.

I had a very traditional upbringing. Family has always been really important to me.

The Trumps were elected because of or in spite of their wealth - depending on how you feel about the First Family. They never misrepresented themselves. They have always been honest about who they are.

Talk about your negative experiences with the father, with your girlfriends. Not with your children. And bite your tongue when it comes to diminishing, denying, dismissing, name-calling.