I Dislike The Word 'victim.' I Dislike

The Kind Of Response I Hope For When I Write My Novels For Children: To Give Them A Chance To Recognize Something Of Their Own Feelings -- About Themselves, Their Parents, Their Friends -- And Their Own Situation As A Kind Of Subject Race, Always At The Mercy Of The Adults Who Mostly Run Their Lives For Them.

I Grew Up On A Suburban Street With Lace Curtains And Dull Neighbours, So I Made Up Stories To Tell My Friend, In Which They Became Serial Killers And Burglars. She Told Her Mother, Who Then Told Mine.

I Met My Second Husband On A Bus. We Looked At Each Other And That Was It. We Were Both Married To Other People At The Time And Behaved Badly, But We Didn't Seem To Have Any Choice. We Were Very Happy For Nearly 50 Years And Would Still Be Together If It Wasn't For The Bloody Railways.

I've Never Found It Made The Slightest Difference Being A Woman - Though There Is A Sort Of Feeling That As You Get Older You're Not So Interesting.

Adults Get More Confused By Social Worker Jargon. Unlike Children, They Are Also Less Likely To See Two Sides Of An Argument, And They No Longer Think They Can Make The World A Better Place. That Can Make Them Rather Boring, I Suppose.