Dickens belongs to the English people.

Dickens is always full of surprises.

I have been left-wing always, from childhood.

Dickens was very practical and sensible.

I always try to travel light.

He left a trail like a meteor, and everyone finds their own version of Charles Dickens.

I continually get more information about a subject after the book has been published.

I didn't start writing my own books until I was 40.

Because my father is French, my first school was the Lycee Francais de Londres in Kensington.

I had forgotten until I looked up old notes that I sold the film rights of my first book, a life of Mary Wollstonecraft: there was a lunch, a contract, a small sum of money, then nothing.