Although some people think I am a romantic novelist I have always thought of myself as a rather gritty radical historian.

At the end of the day, I'm writing in a genre that isn't highly regarded.

Being a stepmother has worked out very well for me. I love my stepchildren very much.

I am in the interesting position of being sometimes skimmed by the critics and called literature and sometimes called historical fiction.

I don't much like Singapore. It's very big, very modern and very urbanised. As a rule, I prefer older places where you get a sense of the history.

I don't shop as much as a lot of people but I do like designer clothes.

I like writing historical fiction.

I try to go to the gym three times a week, and I swim, too.

I would be very, very uncomfortable at teaching, at dreaming to teach, people things.

I would never lie to anyone about history.

If I could change one thing about myself I'd be less highly strung. I find my sensibility quite high maintenance.

The house I grew up in was a tall Victorian town house in Bristol. There were very big rooms, which were under-furnished and always cold.

When I was a child I wanted to be a vet. I'd come home with "lost" kittens and dogs. My mother would tell me to put them back.

For instance, I have never believed that there is only one person for each person in the world. It doesn't make the least sense to me. However, in reality, I fell in love at 45 and I am absolutely certain that my now husband is the only man in the world for me, a truth I find both ridiculous and uplifting.

I like to do the research of history and the creativity of writing fiction. I am creating this thing which I think is twice as difficult as writing either history or fiction.

I love going to London for a couple of days but I need to be in the country. I like the silence, the smell and the seasonal changes, especially in spring and summer. I really feel that I belong there.

I love reading and I love thinking - the reason that I love my books so much is that in order to write them I have to read and to think for years at a time about the same period of time.

The moment that changed me for ever was when I had my first seminar with my history professor at the University of Sussex. I realised that history would answer all the questions I had spent my life asking. It was an extraordinary moment.

I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.

It is the custom of the Roman Church which I unworthily serve with the help of God, to tolerate some things, to turn a blind eye to some, following the spirit of discretion rather than the rigid letter of the law.