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" When I wrote about Mary Wollstonecraft, I found that here she was, in the late 18th century, going to work for the 'Analytical Review.' What was the 'Analytical Review?' It was a magazine that dealt with politics and literature. "

Claire Tomalin

Politics

Work

Literature

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" The book doesn't end when you finish writing it. "

" I fell in love with Shakespeare when I was 12, and I read the whole works. Yes, I was precocious. "

" Why do we read biography? Why do we choose to write it? Because we are human beings, programmed to be curious about other human beings, and to experience something of their lives. This has always been so - look at the Bible, crammed with biographies, very popular reading. "

" Dickens is a lover of human beings; a relisher of human beings. "

" Today's children have very short attention spans because they are being reared on dreadful television programmes which are flickering away in the corner. "

" I've behaved badly in my life. I hope I haven't behaved as badly as Dickens! In a way, if you're a woman, you're not in a position to behave as badly, because you don't have the economic power. "

" Essentially, I spent most of my childhood with my mother and my older sister, and I suppose I had rather a romantic vision of how things might be if there were men around; I saw myself in a country house with six children and a garden. That has never been achieved - and I still regret it. "

" I would like to have a more social life than I have. "

Claire Tomalin

Social Life

Life

" When you live with Dickens for years, reading him and trying to present him as faithfully as you can, you can't fail to love the man - so the shock of his bad behaviour is considerable, even when you know it is coming. "

" I'm usually convinced that what I'm working on is a total disaster. "

" After Shakespeare, Dickens is the great creator of characters, multiple characters. "

" All writers behave badly. All people behave badly. "

" 'A Christmas Carol' has been described as the most perfect of Dickens's works and as a quintessential heart-warming story, and it is certainly the most popular. "

" Writers often feel obliged to adopt some sort of public appearance. "

" I belong to the Richmond Concert Society, who put on very good concerts. "

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

" Most writers can tell stories of how their books failed to be made into films. "

" 'Philomena' was even better than I had expected. I was so pleased to see the evil Irish nuns thoroughly exposed, and I thought Judi Dench gave a flawless performance, as did everybody else. "

" I know it sounds pathetic, but I don't know who I am. "

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

" 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. "

" In 2007, several musicologists contacted me at about the same time, expressing interest in the work of the mysterious Muriel Herbert, a few of whose songs they had come across. "

Claire Tomalin

Same

Time

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

Claire Tomalin

Been

Book

" I'm interested in history, in trying to relate the past to the present and to understand how people thought about their problems and pleasures. "

" I was working at the 'Evening Standard' when I heard that there was a job going as deputy literary editor on the 'New Statesman.' I remember thinking, 'That's perfect.' It was three days a week, and I had children, but I could make that work - so I applied for it and got it. "

" I was very priggish as a child. I saved up for a book on medieval English nunneries, for which I was despised by my friends. "

" It's a difficult thing to lose a child, a grown-up child. "

" I think it's quite normal for people to have love affairs. "

" You become more tolerant when you become older. You're not interested in rapping people over the knuckles; you're interested in understanding them. "

" 'Words and Music' on Radio 3 is always a treat. Actors read passages of poetry and prose interspersed with music, and nobody tells you what it is. Later you can look it up online, but at the time you can't cheat. "