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I read a lot of detective novels.

If I hadn't been able to get my first book published, I am not sure what I would have done.

I began writing fiction because it was the only way to tell all the intricacies of a real-life spy story.

A publisher saw one of my historical novels and thought I would write an admirable detective story, so she offered me a two-book contract, and I grabbed it.

I think the novel form chose me. I was a writer before I became a criminal... my first instinct was to write.

In the early Seventies, I started writing a little autobiographical novel about my childhood - I made it into a mystery story.

I had a publishing history of murder mysteries.

I had novels to write, so I wrote them.

I don't feel that I wanted to spend my whole writing life - which is my life - writing detective stories.

And then I wrote my first autobiography when I - well, it was 23 years ago. And since then I've written about one book every two years.