Laurie Graham

“Sundown is often the worst time of day for people with dementia. They can become restless and difficult.”

“It was the Victorians who covered the piano legs and drew a heavy curtain over what a lady got up to in her boudoir.”

“I'm married to an American, so I guess that has changed my perspective on the subjects I can write about.”

“I've never minded solitude. For a writer, it's a natural condition. But caring for a dementia sufferer leads to a peculiar kind of loneliness.”

“My parents never told me I was beautiful, and for one very good reason. I wasn't. When your child is a tubby, bespectacled little oddity, as I was, it's important not to give them false expectations.”

“Sorry, I don't do castles. I hate those winding turret stairs.”

“It's a funny things about human nature. Nobody ever wonders why they've got a healthy brother or a perfect kiddie. Anything goes wrong, though, we soon start why, oh why...”

“In the Seventies, my children played in the street, read politically incorrect stories, ate home-cooked food and occasional junk and, yes, were sometimes smacked.”

“None of us wants to be reminded that dementia is random, relentless, and frighteningly common.”

“Not so very long ago, certainly well into the Thirties, a lady companion was a normal feature of life for widows or lone spinsters.”

“Being eye candy always was a short-term career, and here's the reason. The world finds young women more attractive than old women because youthfulness signals fertility.”

“I almost always use first person voice in my novels. It has its limitations, but it gives a sense of immediacy that's hard to create with an anonymous, all-seeing narrator.”

“Childhood doesn't have to be perfect, and children don't have to be beautiful. From a bit of grit may grow a pearl, and if pearl production doesn't materialise, the outcome will still be preferable to the shallowness of vanity.”

“When my children were young, one of the treats promised by their grandparents was a ride in Grandad's car.”

“Caring burns a lot of fuel - psychological and physical, too, if any lifting is involved. The energy tank is soon emptied, and the toll caring takes is well documented. It's called carer burn-out.”

“I have but one rule at my table. You may leave your cabbage, but you'll sit still and behave until I've eaten mine.”

“I'm thankful my parents obliged me to live with the unvarnished truth: I might not have been a looker, but I was a better speller than the prettiest girl in my class, and I was funnier, too.”

“Personally, my interest in social history ends around 1959, by which time I was an adolescent. I've always attributed this to my particular sensibilities. I like formality and elegance, and I'm fundamentally conservative.”

“I'd like to see my grandchildren climb trees, not stand under them. I'd like to see them learn to make bread and brown it over a fire using my toasting fork.”

“I've been lucky enough to travel widely. When you're based in Europe, it's very easy to go to Madrid or Budapest for the weekend. I also lived in Italy for ten years and now live in Ireland.”