"Today's children have very short attention spans because they are being reared on dreadful televisio..." — Claire Tomalin

The young Dickens was so alive, so self-confident, so funny.

All writers behave badly. All people behave badly.

I have been fascinated by Dickens worshippers who strenuously deny that he did anything wrong in relation to his wife, even though the record is clear that he did.

It's an odd situation: I could not write about someone for whom I felt no affection or admiration.