Dame Barbara Cartland was an endearing eccentric, and when I interviewed her, she wanted me to listen to her dictating to her secretary one of those romantic novels that she turned out fortnightly.
I'm reading 'Ten Storey Love Song' by Richard Milward. I read his first novel, 'Apples,' after hearing a reading of his in the Hague. I really enjoyed it, so I've started this one.
Charles Dickens is a lot of fun to read but it's not obscure, and that's just fine.
Alan Moore is a peculiarly unsung triumph of British culture, and Northampton, where he was born in 1953, the son of brewery worker Ernest and printer Sylvia, is where you must go to find him.
I'm delighted there's a younger audience discovering James Herriot.
I love to read, and I love Martina Cole.
My own favorite is something called Rogue Male.
The writer I adore is Ivy Compton-Burnett.I couldn't get more than a few pages in when I first read her. In many ways, she is very clumsy and her plots are rubbish. But we don't read her for that. There are pages and pages of dialogue. What it requires is real effort and attention.
I'm a big fan of Michael Morpurgo.
Nick Hornby's a genius.
I love Roald Dahl.
I love Le Carre's writing.
I adore Kate Atkinson, her literary as well as her crime output.
Sophie [Kinsella]'s writing just captivated me. We bought this eight years ago, before it became an international success and was only one book. Now there's five. So, we were very fortunate to latch onto a character who has since become an international success both as a novel and hopefully now as a movie.
I keep thinking I'll enjoy suspense novels, and sometimes I do. I've read about 20 Dick Francis novels.
Anyone who picks up a Compton-Burnett finds it very hard not to put it down.
Dahl was my favorite author as a child. When I got older, I discovered his adult stories and fell even more in love with him.
I played Iris Murdoch, who had not long died, and I felt the responsibility very heavy on my shoulders.
