I sound contemptuous, but I am not. I am interested--intrigued even--by the way time erases real lives, leaving only vague imprints. Blood and spirit fade away so that only names and dates remain.

History in the storyteller's hand was a potent force indeed,....

Wars make history seem deceptively simple. They provide clear turning points, easy distinctions.: before and after, winner and loser, right and wrong. True history, the past, is not like that. It isn't flat or linear. It has no outline. It is slippery, like liquid; infinite and unknowable, like space. And it is changeable: just when you think you see a pattern, perspective shifts, an alternate version is proffered, a long-forgotten memory resurfaces.

In retrospect, it seems like everything in my life led to me becoming a writer. I just didn't realise it at the time.

Dates are convenient hooks on which we can hang our memories of events. But history is all about people - people like you and me who did things to change the world.

People might think writing is a hard business, but it's nowhere near acting.