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I've come to think of Dunnett as the literary equivalent of the Velvet Underground; Not many people bought the books, but everyone who did wrote a novel.

I never sat down and said, 'I'm going to write historical fiction with strong romantic elements.' It was just the way the stories went.

Romance novels satisfy a very specific fantasy of romantic love that seems to be a powerful part of the female psyche.

Ooh, it's too embarrassing to share my innermost romantic secrets - although I have written Danielle the odd poem. If anything they are more comedic than romantic. They used to be well-received but that was before she started studying Shakespeare at drama college. Now I feel so inept.

If people connect me with the Romantics in general, they probably connect me most with Keats. But Wordsworth is the poet I admire above all others.

I can trace every romance of my life back to a meal. My memories are enhanced by the tender morsels had at tables across from lovers, on blankets with friends who'd eventually become more, in banquets, barbecues, and breakfasts.

I grew up around writers, and there was always a romance to them. They were charming. They would tell their stories of what they were working on, over the table.

I seem to be quite drawn to the medieval, magical fantasies, as it were.

I tell stories. I kind of stumbled on that by trying to combine Jane Austen and magic.