As an historical novelist - there are few jobs more retrospective. I dumped science at an early age.

From a very early age, I wanted to fly aeroplanes.

I loved anything to do with animals from a very early age.

I've always hated authority from an early age. And authority have always hated me.

I didn't have a normal background - I was completely demented from a very early age!

I wanted to be a novelist from a very early age - 11 or 12 - but I don't think I ever thought I would write historical fiction. I never thought I might write academic history because I simply wasn't good enough!