Life Isn't So Complicated For Children. They

I Grew Up On A Suburban Street With Lace Curtains And Dull Neighbours, So I Made Up Stories To Tell My Friend, In Which They Became Serial Killers And Burglars. She Told Her Mother, Who Then Told Mine.

I Am Not A Victim. I Am An Angry Survivor.

I Met Richard Burton, An Raf Cadet On A Two-term Course. I Would Have Flirted More Enthusiastically If It Had Not Been For The Horrid Boils On The Back Of His Neck.

There Are Many Times When I Think I Would Have Rather Died With My Husband. It Would Have Been Pleasanter, Simpler. But It Would Have Been Worse For The Children And The Family In General.

The Kind Of Response I Hope For When I Write My Novels For Children: To Give Them A Chance To Recognize Something Of Their Own Feelings -- About Themselves, Their Parents, Their Friends -- And Their Own Situation As A Kind Of Subject Race, Always At The Mercy Of The Adults Who Mostly Run Their Lives For Them.