I'm intrigued by the way in which physical appearance can often direct a person's life; things happen differently for a beautiful woman than for a plain one. Penelope Lively appearancebeautifuldifferently Change image and share on social
Since then, I have just read and read - but, that said, I suppose there is a raft of writers to whom I return again and again, not so much because I want to write like them, even if I were capable of it, but simply for a sort of stylistic shot in the arm. Penelope Lively armcapableraft share on social
I've always been fascinated by the operation of memory - the way in which it is not linear but fragmented, and its ambivalence. Penelope Lively ambivalencefascinatefragment Change image and share on social
The present hardly exists, after all-it becomes the past even as it happens. A tricky medium, time - and central to the concerns of fiction. Penelope Lively centralconcernexist Change image and share on social
I'm now an agnostic but I grew up on the King James version, which I'm eternally grateful for. Penelope Lively agnosticeternallygrateful Change image and share on social
I didn't write anything until I was well over 30. Penelope Lively write Change image and share on social
I'm not an historian and I'm not wanting to write about how I perceive the social change over the century as a historian, but as somebody who's walked through it and whose life has been dictated by it too, as all our lives are. Penelope Lively centurychangedictate share on social
Conventional forms of narrative allow for different points of view, but for this book I wanted a structure whereby each of the main characters contributed a distinctive version of the story. Penelope Lively bookcharactercontribute Change image and share on social
I'm not an historian but I can get interested - obsessively interested - with any aspect of the past, whether it's palaeontology or archaeology or the very recent past. Penelope Lively archaeologyaspecthistorian Change image and share on social
I have had to empty two family homes during the last few years - first, the house that had been my grandmother's since 1923, and then my own country home, which we had lived in for over twenty years. Penelope Lively countryemptyfamily Change image and share on social
