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" The success of 'The Widow' meant there were expectations for the second book from the first word, and it has created a completely different writing experience. Not to say I haven't enjoyed writing 'The Child,' but I confess there were times when I felt as if I was wrenching it out of my body with bloodied fingernails! "

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" A lot of people think journalists are criminals, and there are some who haven't helped us. But the media is essential for democratic society. "

Fiona Barton

Some

Media

" Writing is not just about putting words on a page. Ideas have to cook first. "

" It's amazing to me that journalists are held in such low esteem. "

" When you are a journalist, you are always looking for the next story. It might come from a phone call from a contact or an unanswered question you spot in someone else's article. "

" Once you write a book, you hand it over to the readers, and it's their book then. They're so involved. They ask questions about details that I haven't even thought about. "

" I know I love a novel with an unreliable narrator, and I think many readers do as well. "

" The unsaid is a powerful tool. It invites the reader into the narrative, filling in gaps, interpreting silences and half-finished sentences, and seeing the hidden fear in someone's eye. "

" It is a sad truth that apprenticeships fell out of favour in Britain in the Seventies and Eighties, when the manufacturing industries shed jobs and the construction industry went into decline. "

" As a reporter, I spent a great deal of time in court. During brief breaks in testimony, I would often look at the spouse, usually the wife, of the accused. I began to wonder how listening to the details of a crime purportedly committed by your spouse would affect that person's view of her husband. "

" For me, there has always been the irresistible lure of a secret. "

" As a journalist, your words are regularly read by lots of people, but they're not your words: they're someone else's. You're quoting people. "

" I chose to write from different perspectives despite its complexity because it is what I have always done as a journalist. "

" For most of us, our protective lies or omissions are so insignificant that being found out would be only mildly embarrassing. But for some of us, our secret may threaten to destroy everything. And that is food and drink to a novelist. "

" When I first became a journalist, people said, 'Oh, that must be interesting.' They saw it as slightly glamorous, slightly edgy. They wanted to know more. "

" It was this fascination with hidden lives, I suspect, that led me to journalism; seeking to uncover the truth about people became a job. "

" When you start writing fiction, you have to learn to invent, and it's very hard at the beginning to stop relying on facts and what you've heard. "

" I can't think whether I've actually interviewed the widow of a crime suspect. Obviously, I've interviewed members of the families of people who've been accused of things. "

" Garrison Keillor's 'Lake Wobegon' books create a world I can immerse myself in over and over. I love the deadpan humour, the warmth, and the wonderful characters in The Sidetrack Tap. I discovered them when I was about 30, starting with 'Leaving Home' and 'We Are Still Married,' and fell in love with the place and those flat Midwestern vowels. "

" When you think about it, psychological thrillers often involve extraordinary events happening to ordinary people. "

" Since reading 'Sophie's Choice,' I have been haunted by the agonizing idea of choosing between two children. "

" It's a wonderful experience to be reading a story and think you've got things all figured out, and then suddenly, it all goes upside-down on you. "

" The emotions, responsibilities - and the pain - of motherhood are unique to each of us with children. Ask any woman, and she will have her own story to tell. "

" I like my villains clever, deep, and driven by pure evil. "

Fiona Barton

Clever

Evil

" Mental health is something that I'm very interested in. "