Sara Sheridan

Like most little girls, I found the lure of grown-up accessories astonishing - lipstick, perfume, hats and gloves. When I write female characters in my historical novels, getting these details right is vital.

If there__ one shade a woman of colour can__ wear it__ got to be the one everyone expects, hasn__ it?

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

The writing talent of Edinburgh is textured - we have poets, novelists, non-fiction writers, dramatists and more.

If peace came it would have to do so when there had been time to allow the hatred to grow out of people__ thinking.

No one's book is perfect.

I find it inspiring to actively choose which traditions to celebrate and also come up with new ideas for traditions of my own.

Once they have dedicated themselves to a cause, women will fight to the end for it.

Everyone was important during the war. Everyone. We worked together and we won.

I have a very strong sense that we only know where we are by looking clearly at where we've come from.

The smog curled between the streetlamps and the spokes of the wrought iron framework. It seemed through your body and into your bones.

Mrs Beaumont shrugged. __ougie travelled light in life,_ she said. __e knew it was people who were important.

An aunt is a safe haven for a child. Someone who will keep your secrets and is always on your side.

Parisians were not easy to engage in conversation. Perhaps that was why the Resistance had been so successful.

Cases fired by emotion rather than money were dangerous.

I thought of myself mixing the fragrance of a certain day _ the heavy musk of the hillside after the rain with the lightness of fresh blossoms doused in the downpour. I thought of each little bottle as the essence of a happy day or a sad one. I mixed the scent of a lonely moment _ sandalwood and bergamot lingering over a rich, peppery base.

People who inspire such contradictory emotions must be worthwhile, I reasoned.

The fifties is a decade when every year is markedly different from the one before and after. That doesn't happen every decade. 1983 isn't that much different from 1986. But 1953 is very different from 1956.