Susanna Clarke

Alan Moore is a peculiarly unsung triumph of British culture, and Northampton, where he was born in 1953, the son of brewery worker Ernest and printer Sylvia, is where you must go to find him.

Nothing, I find, has prepared me for the sight of my own characters walking about. A playwright or screenwriter must expect it; a novelist doesn't and naturally concludes that she has gone mad.

I must confess that in my teens and twenties, I loved 'Mansfield Park' rather in spite of Fanny than because of her. Like Fanny's rich, sophisticated cousins, I didn't really get her.

It is good to be in front of the lens to appreciate more being behind the lens.

Marriage can be work, it can be difficult, it can be hard, but I think working through those times makes you stronger as a couple and as a unit.

In many walks of life, a conscience is a more expensive encumbrance than a wife or a carriage.