Having instant feedback on twitter to research material I'm considering is an enormous help.

It's entirely possible to base an entire book on a long-forgotten letter.

A paucity of material can open up just as many possibilities.

History makes my mouth water - and that is as much because of the voids in what documentation remains as what is set in stone.

You've got to make an effort to get the details right, because even through someone picks it up and knows it's a novel, they know someone's made it up and they know it's not real, if you make a small mistake they will cease to imaginatively engage with the story.

One of my favourite parts of writing is doing the research. It's the door into that magical reading/writing state - the raw material for making the story real.

Researching books gets you into nothing but trouble.

I'm a novelist by trade and my job is to write a story rather than reconstruct actual events.

Research material can turn up anywhere - in a dusty old letter in an archive, a journal or some old photographs you find in a charity shop.