I have, I must admit, despised the English countryside for much of my life - despised it and avoided it for its want of danger and adventure.

I have in the past acquired a reputation for concocting non-existent writers and unwritten volumes.

Retiring from writing is to avoid the inevitable bitterness which a writing career is bound to deliver as its end product in almost every case.

I was brought up in a flat in North London - virtually the last building in London, because north of us was countryside all the way to the coast, and south of us was non-stop London for 20 miles.

I say that a university is a house of knowledge, not for showing off Dolce & Gabbana bags. Students should go to university in uniform.

Had the United States and the United Kingdom gone on alone to capture Baghdad, under the provisions of the Geneva and Hague conventions we would have been considered occupying powers and therefore would have been responsible for all the costs of maintaining or restoring government, education and other services for the people of Iraq.

Since the 1970s, we have witnessed the forces of market fundamentalism strip education of its public values, critical content, and civic responsibilities as part of its broader goal of creating new subjects wedded to consumerism, risk-free relationships, and the destruction of the social state.

Children are sent to school to be civilized, to learn to be part of the social enterprise.