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One thing I like about historical fiction is that I'm not constantly focusing on me, or people like me; you're obliged to concentrate on lives that are completely other than your own.

I'm not a great reader of historical fiction; it's not my favourite genre.

My books fall in the wobbly middle between historical fiction and historical romance.

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.

I am in the interesting position of being sometimes skimmed by the critics and called literature and sometimes called historical fiction.

I love historical fiction because there's a literal truth, and there's an emotional truth, and what the fiction writer tries to create is that emotional truth.

I enjoy thinking myself into other times and places. I don't like some of the conventions of the 'historical novel', but I think there's a way of doing it that has a lot of merit.

I like writing historical fiction.

I mean, every novel's a historical novel anyway. But calling something a historical novel seems to put mittens on it, right? It puts manners on it. And you don't want your novels to be mannered.