Natalie Massenet

Ambition is important. Of course you can't get anywhere without talent, but there are a lot of talented people. To succeed, you have to be the most ambitious talented person.

I graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, with an English literature degree and travelled for a year before going to work.

I'm an accidental entrepreneur.

There's a lot of females that hustle, just like men hustle.

It's a terrifying thing to be perhaps 16 or 17 and feel like you are a failure and a has-been.

Although I write to entertain, and try to keep my work free of didacticism, I do have a rather passionate belief in our need to be connected to - and to learn from - history.