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I've always been really interested in how people's identities are shaped by where they come from and how they want to get away from where they come from.

Writing about identity can be like maneuvering through a minefield, even when considering contemporary figures who have discussed the subject themselves.

What I've always tried to find in my books are points at which the private lives of the characters, and also my own, intersect with the public life of the culture.

You'll find a lot of rich detail in people's personal histories - diaries and journals and things of the era.

As someone who has long loved history and reads a lot of history, especially when you get a distance like 130 years, these people can seem almost mythical, and you need something tangible to make them real.

If you're playing the a historical character that's in the public consciousness, then obviously you've got to make an effort to look like that person and there's a huge amount of historical record there that you have to kind of comply to.

Ideas shape the course of history.

The only way to find out anything about what kinds of lives people led in any given period is to tunnel into their records and to let them speak for themselves.

It can be a long gap between the emergence of fully researched historical biographies.

Notoriety and public confession in the literary form is a frazzler of the heart you were born with, believe me.