Helen Dunmore

I enjoy research; in fact research is so engaging that it would be easy to go on for years, and never write the novel at all.

The language has got to be fully alive - I can't bear dull, flaccid writing myself and I don't see why any reader should put up with it.

My first collection of poems was published by Bloodaxe Books, which was then a very new imprint.

Why do men fight who were born to be brothers?

To be honest, I chose romance because writing a book seemed so dauntingly long. I looked around for something short, discovered Harlequin romances, and decided to read a few to see if I could do it.

They said I couldn't play anything but an English boy. I knew I could. So I went to New York.