“It’s nicer to be read than to get nice reviews.”
“I consider myself extremely lucky to have been born and raised in London, and to have had on my doorstep this most fascinating of cities with so many relics of 2000 years of history still to be found in its streets. One of my greatest pleasures was, and still is, exploring London. Circumstances arose which brought my school life to an abrupt termination, and I went hastily to a business college where I studied shorthand, typewriting and languages. And so I had to set about the business of earning a living. For the next two or three years I filled many posts. I have handled unique opals and pearls of great price in Hatton Garden, and was once engaged as an interpreter to French and German patrons of a city cafe, where luckily for me, no Germans ever came, and the French who did were very gallant.”
“I found that married life gave me the necessary freedom to follow an ambition which had been with me since childhood; and so I started to write in earnest.”
“I write regularly every day. I think this is important. As in everything else, practice makes perfect. Research is just a matter of reading old records, letters, etc., in fact everything connected with the period one is researching. I can only say that I love writing more than anything else. I find it stimulating and I never cease to be excited about it.”
“I don’t care about the critics. I write for the public…. I think people want a good story…. They want something which is readable and you can’t beat the traditional for this.”